Teks -- 1 Samuel 8:3 (NET)

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

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Wesley: 1Sa 8:3 - Took bribes

Opportunity and temptation discovered that corruption in them which 'till now was hid from their father. It has often been the grief of holy men, that their children did not tread in their steps. So far from it, that the sons of eminently good men, have been often eminently wicked.

JFB: 1Sa 8:1-5 - when Samuel was old

He was now about fifty-four years of age, having discharged the office of sole judge for twelve years. Unable, from growing infirmities, to prosecute his circuit journeys through the country, he at length confined his magisterial duties to Ramah and its neighborhood (1Sa 7:15), delegating to his sons as his deputies the administration of justice in the southern districts of Palestine, their provincial court being held at Beer-sheba. The young men, however, did not inherit the high qualities of their father. Having corrupted the fountains of justice for their own private aggrandizement, a deputation of the leading men in the country lodged a complaint against them in headquarters, accompanied with a formal demand for a change in the government. The limited and occasional authority of the judges, the disunion and jealousy of the tribes under the administration of those rulers, had been creating a desire for a united and permanent form of government; while the advanced age of Samuel, together with the risk of his death happening in the then unsettled state of the people, was the occasion of calling forth an expression of this desire now.

Clarke: 1Sa 8:3 - His sons walked not in his ways

His sons walked not in his ways - Their iniquity is pointed out in three words

1.    They turned aside after lucre; the original ( בצע batsa ) signifies to cut, clip, break off; and therefore Mr. Parkhurst thinks that it means nearly the same with our clipping of coin. It however expresses here the idea of avarice, of getting money by hook or by crook. The Targum says, "They looked after ממון דשקר mamon dishkar , the mammon of unrighteousness;"of which they did not make unto themselves friends but enemies; see the note on Mat 6:24

2.    They took bribes; שחד shochad , gifts or presents, to blind their eyes

3.    They perverted judgment - they turned judgment aside; they put it out of its regular path; they sold it to the highest bidder: thus the wicked rich man had his cause, and the poor man was oppressed and deprived of his right

This was the custom in our own country before Magna Charta was obtained; he that would speed in the king’ s court must bribe all the officers, and fee both the king and queen! I have found in our ancient records the most barefaced and shameful examples of this kind; but it was totally abolished, invito rege , by that provision in the above charter which states, Nulli vendemus, nulli negabimvs ant differemus rectum aut judicium ; "To no man will we sell, to no man will we deny or defer, justice and right."It was customary in those inauspicious times, for judgment to be delayed in banco regis , in the king’ s court, as long as there was any hope that more money would be paid in order to bring it to issue. And there were cases, where the king did not like the party, in which he denied justice and judgment entirely! Magna Charta brought them to book, and brought the subject to his right

Of those times it might well be said, as Homer did, Iliad xvi., ver. 387

Οἱ βιῃ αγορη σκολιας κρινωσι θεμιστας,

Εκ δε δικην ελασωσι, θεων οπιν ουκ αλεγοντες.

"When guilty mortals break the eternal laws

Or judges, bribed, betray the righteous cause.

"When the laws are perverted by force; when justice is expelled from her seat; when judges are swayed from the right, regardless of the vengeance of Heaven."Or, in other words, these were times in which the streams of justice were poisoned in their source, and judges neither feared God nor regarded man.

TSK: 1Sa 8:3 - his sons // but turned

his sons : 2Sa 15:4; 1Ki 12:6-11; 2Ki 21:1-3; Ecc 2:19; Jer 22:15-17

but turned : Exo 18:21; Deu 16:19; Psa 15:5, Psa 26:10; Isa 33:15; 1Ti 3:3, 1Ti 6:10

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: 1Sa 8:3

Opportunity and temptation drew forth and discovered the corruption in them, which till now was hid from their father, and, it may be, from themselves.

Haydock: 1Sa 8:3 - Judgment

Judgment. Samuel was not to blame, and hence he was not punished like Heli. (Menochius) ---

However, the misconduct of the children of these two judges, in succession, (Haydock) gave occasion to the people to demand a king, who might not be tempted by bribes. (Worthington) ---

It is surprising that most of the great men who are mentioned in history, had degenerate children. (Calmet) ---

Such were some of David's sons, as well as Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, &c. (Haydock) ---

Was it because their fathers were too much taken up with the affairs of state, to watch over the education of their children? or rather, because these young men confided too much on the merits of their family, and took no pains to tread in the footsteps of their parents? (Calmet) ---

"We have here, says Josephus, a manifest proof that children do not always resemble their parents, but sometimes good men spring from the wicked; and on the contrary, the virtuous have an evil progeny."

Gill: 1Sa 8:3 - And his sons walked not in his ways // but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment

And his sons walked not in his ways,.... The meaning of which is not that they did not go the circuit he did, which is too low a sense of the words some Jewish writers give; but they did not walk in the fear of God, in the paths of religion and righteousness, truth and holiness; they neither served God, nor did justice to men, as Samuel had done:

but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment; indulged to covetousness, sought to get riches at any rate, took bribes, which blind the eyes of judges; and so passed wrong judgment, and gave the cause to those that gave the largest gifts, right or wrong.