Back to Deuteronomy 27

Deuteronomy 27:25

‘Cursed is he who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

World English Bible · Public Domain

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    ‘Cursed is he who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

  • KJV King James Version

    Cursed be he that taketh reward to slay an innocent person. And all the people shall say, Amen.

  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    Cursed be he that taketh a bribe to slay an innocent person. And all the people shall say: Amen.

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Cross-references (11)

Passages linked to Deuteronomy 27:25 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.

  • Exodus 23:7-8 “Keep far from a false charge, and don’t kill the innocent and righteous; for I will not justify the wicked. “You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the words of the righteous.
  • Deuteronomy 10:17 For Yahweh your God, he is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the awesome, who doesn’t respect persons or take bribes.
  • Psalms 15:5 he who doesn’t lend out his money for usury, nor take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be shaken.
  • Deuteronomy 16:19 You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality. You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous.
  • Proverbs 1:11-29 If they say, “Come with us. Let’s lay in wait for blood. Let’s lurk secretly for the innocent without cause. Let’s swallow them up alive like Sheol, and whole, like those who go down into the pit. We’ll find all valuable wealth. We’ll fill our houses with plunder. You shall cast your lot among us. We’ll all have one purse.” My son, don’t walk on the path with them. Keep your foot from their path, for their feet run to evil. They hurry to shed blood. For the net is spread in vain in the sight of any bird; but these lay in wait for their own blood. They lurk secretly for their own lives. So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain. It takes away the life of its owners. Wisdom calls aloud in the street. She utters her voice in the public squares. She calls at the head of noisy places. At the entrance of the city gates, she utters her words: “How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? How long will mockers delight themselves in mockery, and fools hate knowledge? Turn at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make known my words to you. Because I have called, and you have refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no one has paid attention; but you have ignored all my counsel, and wanted none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your disaster. I will mock when calamity overtakes you, when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when your disaster comes on like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come on you. Then they will call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me; because they hated knowledge, and didn’t choose the fear of Yahweh.
  • Ezekiel 22:12-13 In you have they taken bribes to shed blood. You have taken interest and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbors by oppression, and have forgotten me,” says the Lord Yahweh. “ ‘ “Behold, therefore I have struck my hand at your dishonest gain which you have made, and at your blood which has been within you.
  • Micah 3:10-11 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money: yet they lean on Yahweh, and say, “Isn’t Yahweh among us? No disaster will come on us.”
  • Micah 7:2-3 The godly man has perished out of the earth, and there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; every man hunts his brother with a net. Their hands are on that which is evil to do it diligently. The ruler and judge ask for a bribe; and the powerful man dictates the evil desire of his soul. Thus they conspire together.
  • Matthew 26:15 and said, “What are you willing to give me, that I should deliver him to you?” They weighed out for him thirty pieces of silver.
  • Matthew 27:3-4 Then Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that Jesus was condemned, felt remorse, and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood.” But they said, “What is that to us? You see to it.”
  • Acts 1:18 Now this man obtained a field with the reward for his wickedness, and falling headlong, his body burst open, and all his intestines gushed out.

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

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Explain this verse (4 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Deu 27:25 Cursed [be] he that taketh reward to…

Deu 27:25 Cursed [be] he that taketh reward to slay an innocent person. And all the people shall say, Amen.

Ver. 25. Cursed be he that taketh reward.] Among the Romans, by the law of the twelve tables, it was death without any deliverance. The psalmist doometh this sin with exclusion out of heaven. {Psa 15:5} That king of this land that was called St Edmund, was wont oft to say, There is not much difference betwixt those two words, prendere and pendere, to take gifts and to hang, and that the latter was the desert of the former. A bribing judge wants but a hurdle, a horse, and a halter, to do him right; as Belknap once said in another case.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Cursed be he that taketh reward to slay an…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 25. Cp. Deu_16:19, and E, Exo_23:8, both against all…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain cf. Exo_23:7, 8

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