Ulangan 16:19

16:19 You must not pervert justice or show favor. Do not take a bribe, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and distort ¹  the words of the righteous. ² 

Ulangan 16:1

The Passover-Unleavened Bread Festival

16:1 Observe the month Abib ³  and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in that month ⁴  he ⁵  brought you out of Egypt by night.

1 Samuel 8:3

8:3 But his sons did not follow ⁶  his ways. Instead, they made money dishonestly, accepted bribes, and perverted justice. ⁷ 

1 Samuel 12:3

12:3 Here I am. Bring a charge against me before the Lord and before his chosen king. ⁸  Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I wronged? Whom have I oppressed? From whose hand have I taken a bribe so that I would overlook something? Tell me, ⁹  and I will return it to you!”

Mazmur 26:10

26:10 who are always ready to do wrong ¹⁰ 

or offer a bribe. ¹¹ 

Amsal 15:27

15:27 The one who is greedy for gain ¹²  troubles ¹³  his household, ¹⁴ 

but whoever hates bribes ¹⁵  will live.

Amsal 17:8

17:8 A bribe works like ¹⁶  a charm ¹⁷  for the one who offers it; ¹⁸ 

in whatever he does ¹⁹  he succeeds. ²⁰ 

Amsal 17:23

17:23 A wicked person receives a bribe secretly ²¹ 

to pervert ²²  the ways of justice.

Amsal 19:4

19:4 Wealth adds many friends,

but a poor person is separated ²³  from his friend. ²⁴ 

Pengkhotbah 7:7

Human Wisdom Overturned by Adversity

7:7 Surely oppression ²⁵  can turn a wise person into a fool; ²⁶ 

likewise, ²⁷  a bribe corrupts ²⁸  the heart. ²⁹ 

Yesaya 1:13

1:13 Do not bring any more meaningless ³⁰  offerings;

I consider your incense detestable! ³¹ 

You observe new moon festivals, Sabbaths, and convocations,

but I cannot tolerate sin-stained celebrations! ³² 

Yesaya 5:23

5:23 They pronounce the guilty innocent for a payoff,

they ignore the just cause of the innocent. ³³ 

Yehezkiel 22:12

22:12 They take bribes within you to shed blood. You engage in usury and charge interest; ³⁴  you extort money from your neighbors. You have forgotten me, ³⁵  declares the sovereign Lord. ³⁶ 

Hosea 4:18

The Shameful Sinners Will Be Brought to Shame

4:18 They consume their alcohol,

then engage in cult prostitution;

they dearly love their shameful behavior.

Amos 5:12

5:12 Certainly ³⁷  I am aware of ³⁸  your many rebellious acts ³⁹ 

and your numerous sins.

You ⁴⁰  torment the innocent, you take bribes,

and you deny justice to ⁴¹  the needy at the city gate. ⁴² 

Mikha 7:3

7:3 They are determined to be experts at doing evil; ⁴³ 

government officials and judges take bribes, ⁴⁴ 

prominent men make demands,

and they all do what is necessary to satisfy them. ⁴⁵ 

[16:19]  ¹ tn Heb “twist, overturn”; NRSV “subverts the cause.”

[16:19]  ² tn Or “innocent”; NRSV “those who are in the right”; NLT “the godly.”

[16:1]  ³ sn The month Abib, later called Nisan (Neh 2:1; Esth 3:7), corresponds to March-April in the modern calendar.

[16:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “in the month Abib.” The demonstrative “that” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[16:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[8:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “walk in” (also in v. 5).

[8:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “and they turned aside after unjust gain and took bribes and perverted justice.”

[12:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “anointed [one].”

[12:3]  ⁹ tn The words “tell me” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[26:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “who [have] in their hands evil.”

[26:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and their right hand is full of a bribe.”

[15:27]  ¹² tn Heb “the one who gains.” The phrase בּוֹצֵעַ בָּצַע (botseakh batsa’) is a participle followed by its cognate accusative. This refers to a person who is always making the big deal, getting the larger cut, or in a hurry to get rich. The verb, though, makes it clear that the gaining of a profit is by violence and usually unjust, since the root has the idea of “cut off; break off; gain by violence.” The line is contrasted with hating bribes, and so the gain in this line may be through bribery.

[15:27]  ¹³ sn The participle “troubles” (עֹכֵר, ’okher) can have the connotation of making things difficult for the family, or completely ruining the family (cf. NAB). In Josh 7:1 Achan took some of the “banned things” and was put to death: Because he “troubled Israel,” the Lord would “trouble” him (take his life, Josh 7:25).

[15:27]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “his house.”

[15:27]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “gifts” (so KJV). Gifts can be harmless enough, but in a setting like this the idea is that the “gift” is in exchange for some “profit [or, gain].” Therefore they are bribes (cf. ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT), and to be hated or rejected. Abram, for example, would not take anything that the king of Sodom had to offer, “lest [he] say, “I have made Abram rich” (Gen 14:22-24).

[17:8]  ¹⁶ tn The phrase “works like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied for the sake of clarity.

[17:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “a stone of favors”; NAB, NRSV “a magic stone.” The term שֹׁחַד (shokhad, “bribe”) could be simply translated as “a gift”; but the second half of the verse says that the one who offers it is successful. At best it could be a gift that opens doors; at worst it is a bribe. The word שֹׁחַד is never used of a disinterested gift, so there is always something of the bribe in it (e.g., Ps 15:5; Isa 1:23). Here it is “a stone that brings favor,” the genitive being the effect or the result of the gift. In other words, it has magical properties and “works like a charm.”

[17:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “in the eyes of its owner.”

[17:8]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “in all that he turns”; NASB, NIV “wherever he turns.”

[17:8]  ²⁰ sn As C. H. Toy points out, the sage is merely affirming a point without making a comment – those who use bribery meet with widespread success (Proverbs [ICC], 341). This does not amount to an endorsement of bribery.

[17:23]  ²¹ sn The fact that the “gift” is given secretly (Heb “from the bosom” [מֵחֵיק, mekheq]; so NASB) indicates that it was not proper. Cf. NRSV “a concealed bribe”; TEV, CEV, NLT “secret bribes.”

[17:23]  ²² tn The form לְהַטּוֹת (lÿhattot) is the Hiphil infinitive construct of נָטָה (natah), meaning “to thrust away,” i.e., to “pervert.” This purpose clause clarifies that the receiving of the “gift” is for evil intent.

[19:4]  ²³ tn The Niphal imperfect probably should be taken in the passive sense (the poor person is deserted by his “friend,” cf. NAB, NIV) rather than as a direct middle (the poor person deserted his friend).

[19:4]  ²⁴ sn This proverb simply makes an observation on life: People pursue wealthy folk hoping that they can gain something from the rich, but the poor are deserted even by friends, who fear that the poor will try to gain something from them.

[7:7]  ²⁵ tn Or “extortion.” Scholars debate whether the noun עֹשֶׁק (’osheq, “oppression; extortion”) in this context denotes “oppression” (HALOT 897 s.v. עֹשֶׁק 1) or “gain of extortion” (BDB 799 s.v. עֹשֶׁק 3). The parallelism between עֹשֶׁק and מַתָּנָה (mattanah, “bribe”) seems to suggest the latter; but the prominence of the theme of oppression in 7:8-10 argues for the former. Elsewhere in Ecclesiastes, the noun עֹשֶׁק denotes “oppression” (Eccl 4:1) and “extortion” (Eccl 5:8 [Heb 5:7]). The LXX rendered it as συκοφαντία (sukofantia, “oppression”). English translations are split between these two options: “extortion” (ASV, MLB, NIV), “oppression” (KJV, NAB, NASB, RSV, NRSV, YLT, Douay, Moffatt), as well as “cheating” (NJPS) and “slander” (NEB).

[7:7]  ²⁶ tn Or “Oppression drives a wise person crazy”; or “Extortion drives a wise person crazy.” The verb III הלל (“to be foolish”) denotes “to make foolish; to make a fool out of someone; to make into a madman” (Job 12:17; Isa 44:25); cf. HALOT 249 s.v. III הלל; BDB 239 s.v. II הלל. It has been handled variously: “makes a wise man mad” (KJV, NASB); “drives a wise man crazy” (NEB); “can make a fool of a wise man” (NAB); “makes the wise man foolish” (RSV, NRSV); and “turns a wise man into a fool” (NIV).

[7:7]  ²⁷ tn The vav prefixed to וִיאַבֵּד (vi’abbed, “corrupts”) may function in a comparative sense, e.g., Job 5:7; 12:11; 16:21; Prov 25:25 (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 71, §437).

[7:7]  ²⁸ tc The text has וִיאַבֵּד (vi’abbed, conjunction + Piel imperfect 3rd person masculine singular from אָבַד, ’avad, “to destroy”), but the Dead Sea Scrolls text 4Q109 (Qoh^a), which reads ,ויעוה assumes ויעוה “twists” or “perverts” (conjunction + Piel imperfect 3rd person masculine singular from עָוָה I, ’avah, “to bend; to twist.” See J. Muilenburg, “A Qoheleth Scroll from Qumran,” BASOR 135 [1954]: 27). The verb I עָוָה (“to bend; to twist”) is used in reference to moral perversion (e.g., 2 Sam 7:14; 19:20; 24:17; 1 Kgs 8:47; Job 33:27; Prov 12:8; Jer 9:4); cf. HALOT 796–97 s.v. עוה; BDB 730 s.v. I עָוָה. The verb ויאבד is used similarly in reference to moral corruption, e.g., Eccl 3:6; 9:18; Jer 23:1 (HALOT 3 s.v. I אבד; BDB 2 s.v. אָבַד 2).

[7:7]  ²⁹ tn Or “and a bribe drives a person mad.” The noun לֵב (lev, “heart”) may be taken as a synecdoche of part (i.e., heart) for the whole (i.e., a person). HALOT 3 s.v. I אבד suggests that וִיאַבֵּד לֵב (vi’abbed lev, “destroys the heart”) is an idiom meaning, “drives a person mad.” The B-line is taken as a comparison with the preceding A-line. On the other hand, the A-line and B-line might be in synonymous parallelism in which case the two lines could be rendered: “Surely [the gain of] extortion turns a wise man into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart.” On the other hand, the lines could be rendered, “Surely oppression drives a wise man crazy, and a bribe drives a person mad.”

[1:13]  ³⁰ tn Or “worthless” (NASB, NCV, CEV); KJV, ASV “vain.”

[1:13]  ³¹ sn Notice some of the other practices that Yahweh regards as “detestable”: homosexuality (Lev 18:22-30; 20:13), idolatry (Deut 7:25; 13:15), human sacrifice (Deut 12:31), eating ritually unclean animals (Deut 14:3-8), sacrificing defective animals (Deut 17:1), engaging in occult activities (Deut 18:9-14), and practicing ritual prostitution (1 Kgs 14:23).

[1:13]  ³² tn Heb “sin and assembly” (these two nouns probably represent a hendiadys). The point is that their attempts at worship are unacceptable to God because the people’s everyday actions in the socio-economic realm prove they have no genuine devotion to God (see vv. 16-17).

[5:23]  ³³ tn Heb “and the just cause of the innocent ones they turn aside from him.”

[5:23]  sn In vv. 22-23 the prophet returns to themes with which he opened his speech. The accusatory elements of vv. 8, 11-12, 18-23 are arranged in a chiastic manner: (A) social injustice (8), (B) carousing (11-12a), (C) spiritual insensitivity (12b) // (C') spiritual insensitivity (18-21), (B') carousing (22), (A') social injustice (23).

[22:12]  ³⁴ tn Heb “usury and interest you take.” See 18:13, 17. This kind of economic exploitation violated the law given in Lev 25:36.

[22:12]  ³⁵ sn Forgetting the Lord is also addressed in Deut 6:12; 8:11, 14; Jer 3:21; 13:25; Ezek 23:35; Hos 2:15; 8:14; 13:6.

[22:12]  ³⁶ tn The second person verb forms are feminine singular in Hebrew, indicating that the personified city is addressed here as representing its citizens.

[5:12]  ³⁷ tn Or “for.”

[5:12]  ³⁸ tn Or “I know” (so most English versions).

[5:12]  ³⁹ tn Or “transgressions,” “sins.” See the note on the word “crimes” in 1:3 and on the phrase “covenant violations” in 2:4.

[5:12]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “Those who.”

[5:12]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “turn aside.” They “turn aside” the needy by denying them the justice they deserve at the city gate (where legal decisions were made, and therefore where justice should be done).

[5:12]  ⁴² sn Legal disputes were resolved in the city gate, where the town elders met.

[7:3]  ⁴³ tn Heb “upon evil [are their] hands to do [it] well.”

[7:3]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “the official asks – and the judge – for a bribe.”

[7:3]  ⁴⁵ tn More literally, “the great one announces what his appetite desires and they weave it together.” Apparently this means that subordinates plot and maneuver to make sure the prominent man’s desires materialize.