The Hebrew mishqal means weight, the act of weighing, or a standard weight. It is derived from shaqal (to weigh), the same root that gives us the shekel. It appears in commercial, legal, and prophetic contexts.
The mishqal is a concrete image of divine justice. Proverbs 16:11 declares: 'Honest weights and scales belong to the LORD; all the weights in the bag are of his making.' God is the ultimate standard-setter. False weights in commerce were an abomination (Proverbs 11:1; Micah 6:11) because they violated the divine order in which all transactions are fair. Theologically, mishqal also points to the eschatological scales of judgment: the famous mene tekel uparsin of Daniel 5:27 — 'Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.' God's standard is not adjusted for power or prestige; every soul is weighed honestly. The gospel's radical claim is that Jesus bore our deficit weight so that in him we are 'found in him, not having a righteousness of my own' (Philippians 3:9).