Procureth,+ rather "seeketh." +Favour,+ _i.e.,_ God's favour. So it is generally understood. But Delitzsch reads "He who striveth after good, seeketh that which is pleasing," _i.e.,_ that which pleaseth or doeth good to others. +28. Branch,+ rather, "a green leaf." +30.+ Or, "the wise man winneth" or "taketh" souls. +31.+ Miller transposes this verse and reads, "Behold the righteous on earth shall be recompensed," etc. +On earth+ may be placed either with "the righteous," or with "recompensed." _MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 1. JUST WEIGHT. The judgment on a false weight is a two-fold revelation. +I. It reveals the existence of a true standard.+ We only know what is false by knowing what is true. If a mason looks at a stone and declares that it is uneven, he declares at the same time that there is such a thing as an even stone, or that there is a possibility of making a stone perfectly level and square. He reveals his knowledge of what is even by passing judgment upon what is uneven. When a judge declares that a man has not fulfilled the requirements of the law, he thereby proclaims the existence of a law which ought to have been, and might have been obeyed. As Paul tells us, "Sin is not imputed where there is no law" (Rom. v. 13). And if a weight is condemned as false, the condemnation implies that there is a certain standard of weight which ought to have been reached. God, who here tells men that He abominates a false balance, declared by His condemnation of it that there is such a thing as a true weight: that there is that which He recognises as _justice_ between man and man. And much that men call "a full stone," a "fair day's wages," is not so regarded by God. It is not dealing truly with a man to give him the smallest possible amount for the work he does--to take advantage of his poverty or ignorance to beat him down to the lowest sum for which his need will induce him to give his labour, and thereby condemn him to all the evils of insufficient means. "Behold!" says Carlyle, "supply and demand is not the one law of Nature; cash payment is not the sole nexus of man with man,--how far from it! Deep, far deeper than supply and demand are laws, obligations sacred as man's life itself!" This is the law of the Divine kingdom: "All things whatsoever ye would that man should do to you, do ye even so to them" (Matt. vii. 12). Less than this is a "false balance," this is the "full stone," which is God's "_delight._"