Reference to balances is found in (Leviticus 19:36) They were in common use, gold and silver being paid out and received by weight. Reference is also made in (Micah 6:11; Hosea 12:7) to the dishonest practice of buying by heavier and selling by lighter weights.
Balances
A merchant’s scale could cheat quietly, and the prophets noticed. “A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight” (Proverbs 11:1). Leviticus 19:36 asks for just balances, and Amos 8:5 describes sellers who falsify the balances by deceit. Isaiah 40 turns the picture around: the nations are counted “as the small dust of the balance,” and God has weighed the mountains in scales. Honesty over small measures matters because the One who weighs everything sees them. Job even asks to be weighed in an even balance, trusting his own integrity.
8 verses
Leviticus
Leviticus 19:36
Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.
Job
Job 31:6
Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.
Proverbs
Proverbs 11:1
A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.
Isaiah
Isaiah 40:12
Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?
Isaiah 40:15
Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.
Isaiah 46:6
They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a god: they fall down, yea, they worship.
Hosea
Hosea 12:7
He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress.
Amos
Amos 8:5
Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?
From Smith's Bible Dictionary
William Smith, 1884