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Hebrew

Balance

פֶּ֫לֶסStrong’s H6425

peles (pe-les)

Appears in 2 verses of the Old Testament

In short

Peles is the Hebrew word usually translated “balance”. It appears in 2 verses of the Old Testament.

“A just weight and balance are the LORD’s: all the weights of the bag are his work.”
Proverbs 16:11 KJV
Meaning
  1. Balance, scale
How it's translated
  • a balance 1
  • with balance 1

Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.

Where it's used most
  • Proverbs 1
  • Isaiah 1

2 books in all.

Related words
Explore in Scripture
Hebrew dictionary

פֶּ֫לֶס peles · balance

balance, scale

From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

How the English word “balance” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.

BAL'ANCE, noun

[Latin bilanx, bis, twice, and lanz, a dish, the double dish.]

  1. A pair of scales, for weighing commodities.
  2. One of the simple powers in mechanics, used for determining the equality or difference of weight in heavy bodies, and consequently their masses or quantity of matter.
  3. Figuratively, an impartial state of the mind, in deliberating; or a just estimate of the reasons and arguments on
  4. As balance signifies equal weight, or equality, it is by custom used for the weight or sum necessary to make two unequal weights or sums equal; that which is necessary to bring them to a balance or equipoise.
All definitions and other forms of “balance”
  1. balance of trade is an equal exportation of domestic productions, and importation of foreign.
  2. Equipoise, or an equal state of power between nations; as the 'balance of power.'
  3. Equipoise, or an equal state of the passions.
  4. That which renders weight or authority equal.
  5. The part of a clock or watch which regulates the beats.
  6. In astronomy, a sign in the zodiac, called in Latin Libra, which the sun enters at the equinox in September.

BAL'ANCE, verb transitive

To adjust the weights in the scales of a balance so as to bring them to an equipoise. Hence,

  1. To weigh reasons; to compare, by estimating the relative force, importance, or value of different things; as, to balance good and evil.
  2. To regulate different powers, so as to keep them in a state of just proportion; as, to balance Europe, or the powers of Europe.
  3. To counterpoise; to make of equal weight or force; to make equipollent; as, one species of attraction balances another.
  4. To settle and adjust, as an account; to find the difference of two accounts, and to pay the balance or difference, and make them equal.
  5. In seamanship, to contract a sail, by rolling up a small part of it at one corner.

BAL'ANCE, verb intransitive

To have on each side equal weight; to be on a poise.

  1. To hesitate; to fluctuate between motives which appear of equal force, as a balance plays when poised by equal weights.

Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Verse references are checked against the KJV. Read the full entry.

Verses are from the King James Version. Word meanings come from the original Hebrew, not from any one translation.