“You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the words of the righteous.
Parallel Translations
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“You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the words of the righteous.
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And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous.
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And thou shalt take no gift; for a gift blindeth them that have sight, and perverteth the words of the righteous.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Commandments (1)
The laws of the Torah, each cited and shown as a primary source.
Cross-references (16)
Passages linked to Exodus 23:8 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 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 17:23 A wicked man receives a bribe in secret, to pervert the ways of justice.
- Isaiah 5:23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice for the innocent!
- Proverbs 15:27 He who is greedy for gain troubles his own house, but he who hates bribes will live.
- 1 Samuel 8:3 His sons didn’t walk in his ways, but turned away after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice.
- 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 26:10 in whose hands is wickedness, their right hand is full of bribes.
- Ecclesiastes 7:7 Surely extortion makes the wise man foolish; and a bribe destroys the understanding.
- 1 Samuel 12:3 Here I am. Witness against me before Yahweh, and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Of whose hand have I taken a bribe to make me blind my eyes? I will restore it to you.”
- Proverbs 17:8 A bribe is a precious stone in the eyes of him who gives it; wherever he turns, he prospers.
- Proverbs 19:4 Wealth adds many friends, but the poor is separated from his friend.
- Ezekiel 22:12 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.
- Amos 5:12 For I know how many your offenses, and how great are your sins— you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn away the needy in the courts.
- Micah 7:3 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.
- Isaiah 1:13 Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me. New moons, Sabbaths, and convocations: I can’t stand evil assemblies.
- Hosea 4:18 Their drink has become sour. They play the prostitute continually. Her rulers dearly love their shameful way.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Hebrew, seeing.
Hebrew, seeing.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Exo 23:8 And thou shalt take no gift: for…
Exo 23:8 And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous.
Ver. 8. And thou shalt take no gift.] Rain is good, and ground is good; yet Ex eorum coniunctione fit lutum, saith Stapleton. So giving is kind, and taking is courteous, yet the mixing of them makes the smooth paths of justice foul and uneven.
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.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Thou shalt take no gift, namely, from such whose…
Thou shalt take no gift, namely, from such whose causes are depending before thee; because if thou dost not sell justice for it, yet thou wilt both seem to do so, and be tempted to do so. Compare Deu 16:19; 1Sa 8:3; Pro 17:8,23; 19:6.
The wise, or, the open-eyed, and quick-sighted, who in this case cannot see, partly because they will not see, and partly because interest and affection do exceedingly corrupt the judgment, and render it very partial.
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The words of the righteous, i.e. the judgment of the righteous judges, i.e. of them who before were such, and are inclined to be so, and probably would be so, were they not tempted with bribes; or of them who by their place should be righteous. So they are called righteous, to admonish them of their duty to be so, and to aggravate their sin when they are unrighteous, and consequently to aggravate the mischief of gifts, which make those unrighteous whose office obligeth them to be righteous. Or thus,
the matters or causes of the righteous, which may be understood not of the judges, but of the parties pleading, whose righteous cause is by this means perverted by the judge, and a wrong sentence given.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Also thou shall not oppress a stranger,.... As these…
Also thou shall not oppress a stranger,.... As these were not to be vexed and oppressed in a private manner and by private men, see Exo 22:21 so neither in a public manner, and in a public court of judicature, or by judges on the bench when their cause was before them, by not doing them justice, showing a partiality to those of their own nation against a stranger; whereas a stranger ought to have equal justice done him as a native, and the utmost care should be taken that he has no injury done him, and the rather because he is a stranger:
for ye know the heart of a stranger; the fears he is possessed of, the inward distress of his soul, the anxiety of his mind, the tenderness of his heart, the workings of his passions, his grief and sorrow, and dejection of spirit: the Targum of Jonathan is,""the groaning of the soul of a stranger": this the Israelitish judges knew, having had a very late experience of it:"
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seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt; where they had been vexed and oppressed, brought into hard bondage, and groaned under it; and therefore it might be reasonably thought and expected that they would have a heart sympathizing with strangers, and use them well, and especially see that justice was done them, and no injury or oppression of any kind.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 8. Thou shalt take no gift] A strong…
Verse 8. Thou shalt take no gift] A strong ordinance against selling justice, which has been the disgrace and ruin of every state where it has been practised. In the excellent charter of British liberties called Magna Charta, there is one article expressly on this head: Nulli vendemus, nulli negabimus aut differemus, rectum aut justitiam. - Art. xxxiii. "To none will we sell, to none will we deny or defer, right or justice." This was the more necessary in those early and corrupt times, as he who had most money, and gave the largest presents (called then oblata) to the king or queen, was sure to gain his cause in the king's court; whether he had right and justice on his side or not.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Exo 23:8. Thou shalt take no gift — From…
Exo 23:8. Thou shalt take no gift — From those whose causes are depending before thee; because, if thou dost not sell justice for it, thou wilt both seem and be tempted to do so. The gift blindeth the wise — Bribes and interest cast a mist before the eyes, and bias the judgment and affections even of those who are otherwise wise and discerning. Besides, a habit of taking bribes will, in time, quite extinguish the light of reason, and destroy the sense of right and wrong. See Ecc 7:7. And perverteth the words of the righteous — The words or sentence of those who would otherwise be righteous: or perverteth the cause of the righteous, and all he can say in his own defence, and and procures a wrong sentence to be given against him.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Bribes, which naturally induce the receiver to shew favour,…
Bribes, which naturally induce the receiver to shew favour, and therefore cannot be too carefully avoided. The Athenians put to death those who bribed the judges, and required the latter to restore ten-fold. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 8. Take no gift — That is, as a…
8. Take no gift — That is, as a bribe. The marginal references show how repeatedly this sin is condemned in the Scriptures.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 8. gift (twice)] bribe, as the same word is…
8. gift (twice)] bribe, as the same word is rendered in EVV. of 1Sa_8:3, Isa_33:15, and in RV. of Eze_22:12. It is true, ‘gift’ had this sense in Old English; but the Heb. word means distinctively a ‘bribe,’ and there are places in which the sense of ‘gift’ is not clear. The same word (shôḥad) is also sometimes rendered ‘reward.’ See for allusions to the practice of taking bribes, Isa_1:23; Isa_5:23, Mic_3:11, Eze_22:12, Psa_26:10, Pro_17:8; Pro_17:23; it is what the righteous man never does, Psa_15:5, Isa_33:15, nor Jehovah, Deu_10:17; it is forbidden, as here, in Deu_16:19, and cursed, if its object be to ‘slay an innocent person,’ in Deu_27:25. The prevalence of bribery in the East is notorious; see a singular case, in which the chief Ḳaḍi of Cairo was implicated, in Lane, Mod. Egyptians, i. 145 ff.
for a bribe blindeth the open-eyed, and subverteth the cause (RVm.) of the righteous] The whole verse is repeated verbatim in Deu_16:19, except that ‘eyes of the wise’ is substituted for ‘open-eyed.’ For ‘words,’ i.e. statements, arguments, pleas, which in a forensic connexion are tantamount in the aggregate to a ‘case’ or ‘cause,’ see Exo_24:14, with the note, Jos_20:4 (lit. ‘his words’), 2Sa_15:3 (lit. ‘thy words’). For ‘subverteth,’ cf. Pro_19:3; Pro_22:12 (‘overthroweth’).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (8) Thou shalt take no gift—i.e., no bribe. Corruption…
(8) Thou shalt take no gift—i.e., no bribe. Corruption has been always rife in the East, and the pure administration of justice is almost unknown there. Signal punishments by wise rulers have sometimes checked the inveterate evil (Herod. v. 25). But it recurs again and again—“Naturam expellas furca, tarnen usque recurret.” According to Josephus (contr. Ap. ii. 27), the Jewish law punished with death the judge who took a bribe. But Hebrew judges seem practically to have been no better than Oriental judges generally. (See 1Sa_8:3; Psa_26:10; Pro_17:23; Isa_1:23; Isa_5:23; Mic_3:9-11, &c.) The corrupt Administration of justice was one of the crying evils which provoked God’s judgments against His people, and led, in the first instance, to the Babylonian captivity, and afterwards to the Roman conquest.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And thou shalt take no gift. The worst sin…
And thou shalt take no gift. The worst sin of a judge, and the commonest in the East, is to accept abribe from one of the parties to a suit, and give sentence accordingly. As such a practice defeats the whole end for which the administration of justice exists, it is, when detected, for the most part, punished capitally. Josephus tells us that it was so among the Jews (Contr. Apion. 2:27); but the Mosaic code, as it has come down to us, omits to fix the penalty. Whatever it was, it was practically set at nought. Eli"s sons "turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment". (1Sa_8:3) In David"s time, men"s hands were "full of bribes". (Psa_26:10) Solomon complains of wicked men" taking gifts out of their bosoms to pervert the ways of judgment". (Pro_17:23) Isaiah is never weary of bearing witness against the princes of his day, who" love gifts and follow after rewards"; who (Isa_1:23) "justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him". (Isa_5:23) Micah adds his testimony this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment and pervert all equity. They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. The heads thereof judge for reward". (Exo_3:9-11) The gift blindeth the wise. See Deu_16:19.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.