This is the Hebrew expression for discrimination or treating people with double standards. ‘Ey•fa’ is the biblical volume or capacity measuring tool for dry substances.
A dishonest practice was to use two ‘ey•fa’ measuring utensils: a large one for purchasing goods (that allows getting more) and another for selling (that allows giving less), whereas one should have to use only one utensil for both actions.
The meaning of this idiom was extended to characterize all unfair, double-standard treatments of people. In other words, employing discriminatory measures that can take the form of different laws and rules applied to different groups of people. There is no need to expand here; we’ve all witnessed this injustice sometime in our own life.
“You shall not have in your house different measures, a large and a small”
The Hebrew word that is used here for measure is ‘ey•fa.’
This kind of crooked discrimination is an offense against God and not only against men.
“Different weights, and different measures, both of them are alike an abomination to the Lord”
These verses and others greatly influenced the authors of the American Pledge of Allegiance in all of its versions since 1892, many years before Metallica released its famous album with the same name.
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