The two lines of this verse are a single statement. See verse 23 for another saying similar to this. The same theme of dishonesty in trading is addressed in 11.1 and 16.11.

“Diverse weights and diverse measures”: This is literally “a stone and a stone, an ʾephah and an ʾephah.” The reference is apparently to the practice of having “Diverse” or different sets of “weights” or “measures” for buying and for selling. For “Diverse weights” New Jerusalem Bible says “One weight here, another there” and Revised English Bible “A double standard in weights”; other translations have “unequal weights” or “differing weights.” Since it is the fact rather than the detail of the deceptive practice that is condemned, a more general rendering like “dishonest weights” (Good News Translation) or “dishonest scales” (Contemporary English Version) is quite satisfactory here. For cultures where using standard weights and measures in trading is not well known, a more general rendering may be used; for example, “If someone deceives people when he weighs the things they are buying, . . .”

“Are both alike an abomination to the Lord“: “Are both alike” refers to the two practices mentioned in the first line; this will not be appropriate if the first line has been translated as a single expression. “An abomination to the Lord“, as in 3.32, means something that the Lord hates or “detests” (New International Version).

Contemporary English Version restructures the verse by reversing the lines: “Two things the Lord hates are dishonest scales and dishonest measures.” Good News Translation also reverses the lines, but it also recognizes that it is people who are at fault rather than the weights or measures that they use: “The Lord hates people who use dishonest weights and measures.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .