Proverbs 24:11-12

The people carried away in Proverbs 24:11 are evidently innocent captives or oppressed individuals. We have a responsibility to help such people. If we claim ignorance of their condition as a reason for not helping them, we need to remember that God knows the true condition of our heart and will requite us accordingly. We are responsible to rescue those who are in mortal danger. This includes warning and teaching those who are hastening to destruction. [Note: Toy, p. 445.]

"In Proverbs 24:12 Yahweh is represented as one ’who weighs the heart.’ This figure goes back to the Egyptian god Thoth, who is often represented as standing at the judgment of the dead beside the scales with the human heart." [Note: Waltke, "The Book . . .," p. 237.]

The concept of God weighing the heart was also very old in Israelite theology going back as far as the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:17-19).