"... Honesty Is Yahweh’s Policy, 11:1-2 ... The opening saying reminds readers of both prophetic and legal texts that express a desire for honest transactions in the marketplace. The eighth-century prophet Micah, as one example, condemned evil balances (e.g., 6:11), and such views were later legislated in the Josianic reforms (e.g., Deuteronomy 25:15). The saying is revisited in various forms throughout the entire collection of proverbs (e.g., 16:11; 20:10, 23). The symbolism of a balance may be expanded for the modern reader. The use of a balance in the afterlife to determine one’s final fate was common in Egyptian mythology. That this verse should open several collections of sayings on the fates of the righteous and the wicked is therefore doubly appropriate. (Balances in the Egyptian Book of the Dead) Verse 2, however, stands on its own and does not share any thematic, semantic, or syntactic similarity with the immediate context. Nevertheless, it articulates a familiar adage, colloquially expressed as “pride goes before a fall” (compare 15:33; 16:18; 18:12) ..."