Let me be weighed in a just balance: for comments on the parentheses in Revised Standard Version, see verse 5. With these words Job challenges God to act fairly with him. Only in the next line is God mentioned. Good News Translation has shifted “God” to line a and followed with “he” in line b. This is more natural for English style. The image of weighing is found also in Daniel 5.27. A just balance translates a phrase which is literally “scales of justice” and is used in Leviticus 19.36 and Ezekiel 45.10. It refers to scales that weigh fairly, and so Good News Translation “honest scales,” that is, scales that give correct weights. If translators find that the image of being weighed on a just scale is inappropriate, it may be possible to express the sense without the image; for example, “Let God judge me fairly” or “Let God decide honestly about me.”

And let God know my integrity: this is best understood as a consequence of the previous line, “so that God will know….” If God will only measure Job’s life with respect to his guilt or innocence, that will prove that Job is innocent. This was Job’s claim in 29.14, where he says he has always acted justly. Integrity translates the same word used in 2.3, 9; and in 27.5, “till I die I will not put away my integrity from me.” See 2.3 for discussion. This line may be translated as either consequence or purpose; for example, “so that he will know how innocent I am” or “and then God will know I am not guilty of any wrong.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .