Albert Barnes Commentary Proverbs 11

This emphatic reproduction of the old rule of Deuteronomy 25:13-14 is perhaps a trace of the danger of dishonesty associated with the growing commerce of the Israelites. The stress laid upon the same sin in Proverbs 16:11 and Proverbs 20:10 testifies to the desire of the teacher to educate the youth of Israel to a high standard of integrity, just as the protest of Hosea against it (Hosea 12:7) shows the zeal of the prophet in rebuking what was becoming more and more a besetting sin.

A just weight—literally, as in the margin—indicates a time when stones rather than metal were used as a standard of weight. Compare Deuteronomy 25:13.

A rabbinic paraphrase of the second clause is: “Lowly souls become full of wisdom as the low place becomes full of water.”

The day of wrath - Words true in their highest sense of the great “diesirae” of the future, but spoken primarily of any “day of the Lord,” any time of judgment, when men or nations receive the chastisement of their sins. At such a time riches profit not.

Significant words, as showing the belief that when the righteous died, his “expectation” (that is, his hope for the future) did not perish. The second clause is rendered by some, “the expectation that brings sorrow.”

Through knowledge – Better, By the knowledge of the just, they (that is, the neighbors) will be delivered.