In my reading, I ran across a reference to one’s life being “weighed in a balance”, so I thought I’d search to see how much language of this sort there is in the ancient literature. This post, therefore, is a work in progress, and I will add to it as I discover other such references. I include in the scriptures below not only what the Bible documents say about it, but anything else I could find in the writings of the ancient Hebrew Culture (before AD 100).
1 Samuel 2:3 “Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the Lord is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed.
Job 31:6 let God weigh me in honest scales and he will know that I am blameless—
Psalm 62:9 Surely the lowborn are but a breath, the highborn are but a lie. If weighed on a balance, they are nothing; together they are only a breath.
Proverbs 16:2 All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord.
Proverbs 21:2 A person may think their own ways are right, but the Lord weighs the heart.
Proverbs 24:12 If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done?
Daniel 5:27 Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
Luke 21:34 “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap.
NOTE: There are several passages about people or their hearts being weighed down — as with age, for example. I did not include them in this list. But this one has them weighed down with sins, which makes me wonder if this is not a passage about emotional well-being, but about reaching a state in which one would fail the judgment if he were judged at that time..
1 Enoch 41:1 And after that I saw all the secrets of the heavens, and how the kingdom is divided, and how the actions of men are weighed in the balance.
1 Enoch 43:1 And I saw other lightnings and the stars of heaven, and I saw how He called them all by their names and they hearkened unto Him. 2. And I saw how they are weighed in a righteous balance according to their proportions of light: (I saw) the width of their spaces and the day of their appearing, and how their revolution produces lightning: and (I saw) their revolution according to the number of the angels, and (how) they keep faith with each other.
1 Enoch 60:12 And the chambers of the winds, and how the winds are divided, and how they are weighed, and (how) the portals of the winds are reckoned, each according to the power of the wind, and the power of the lights of the moon, and according to the power that is fitting: and the divisions of the stars according to their names, and how all the divisions are divided.
1 Enoch 61:8 And the Lord of Spirits placed the Elect one on the throne of glory.
And he shall judge all the works of the holy above in the heaven,
And in the balance shall their deeds be weighed
2 Esdras 3:34. Now therefore weigh in a balance our iniquities and those of the inhabitants of the world; and it will be found which way the turn of the scale will incline. 35. When have the inhabitants of the earth not sinned in your sight? Or what nation has kept your commandments so well? 36. You may indeed find individuals who have kept your commandments, but nations you will not find.”
Apocalypse of Zephaniah 8:6 Now, moreover, my sons, this is the trial because it is necessary that the good and the evil be weighed in a balance.
NOTE: Here is the most specific reference to the good deeds being weighed against the bad. This could possibly be in view in this passage:
2 Corinthians 5:For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
