Keluaran 18:21

18:21 But you choose ¹  from the people capable men, ²  God-fearing, ³  men of truth, ⁴  those who hate bribes, ⁵  and put them over the people ⁶  as rulers ⁷  of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.

Imamat 19:15

Justice, Love, and Propriety

19:15 “‘You ⁸  must not deal unjustly in judgment: ⁹  you must neither show partiality to the poor nor honor the rich. ¹⁰  You must judge your fellow citizen fairly. ¹¹ 

Ulangan 10:17

10:17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God who is unbiased and takes no bribe,

Ulangan 27:25

27:25 ‘Cursed is the one who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’

Ayub 15:34

15:34 For the company of the godless is barren, ¹² 

and fire ¹³  consumes the tents of those who accept bribes. ¹⁴ 

Ayub 36:18

36:18 Be careful that ¹⁵  no one entices you with riches;

do not let a large bribe ¹⁶  turn you aside.

Mazmur 26:10

26:10 who are always ready to do wrong ¹⁷ 

or offer a bribe. ¹⁸ 

Amsal 6:35

6:35 He will not consider ¹⁹  any compensation; ²⁰ 

he will not be willing, even if you multiply the compensation. ²¹ 

Amsal 15:27

15:27 The one who is greedy for gain ²²  troubles ²³  his household, ²⁴ 

but whoever hates bribes ²⁵  will live.

Amsal 17:8

17:8 A bribe works like ²⁶  a charm ²⁷  for the one who offers it; ²⁸ 

in whatever he does ²⁹  he succeeds. ³⁰ 

Yesaya 1:23

1:23 Your officials are rebels, ³¹ 

they associate with ³²  thieves.

All of them love bribery,

and look for ³³  payoffs. ³⁴ 

They do not take up the cause of the orphan, ³⁵ 

or defend the rights of the widow. ³⁶ 

Yesaya 5:23

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

they ignore the just cause of the innocent. ³⁷ 

Mikha 3:11

3:11 Her ³⁸  leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, ³⁹ 

her priests proclaim rulings for profit,

and her prophets read omens for pay.

Yet they claim to trust ⁴⁰  the Lord and say,

“The Lord is among us. ⁴¹ 

Disaster will not overtake ⁴²  us!”

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 

[18:21]  ¹ tn The construction uses the independent pronoun for emphasis, and then the imperfect tense “see” (חָזָה, khazah) – “and you will see from all….” Both in Hebrew and Ugaritic expressions of “seeing” are used in the sense of choosing (Gen 41:33). See U. Cassuto, Exodus, 220.

[18:21]  ² tn The expression is אַנְשֵׁי־חַיִל (’anshe khayil, “capable men”). The attributive genitive is the word used in expressions like “mighty man of valor.” The word describes these men as respected, influential, powerful people, those looked up to by the community as leaders, and those who will have the needs of the community in mind.

[18:21]  ³ tn The description “fearers of God” uses an objective genitive. It describes them as devout, worshipful, obedient servants of God.

[18:21]  ⁴ tn The expression “men of truth” (אַנְשֵׁי אֱמֶת, ’anshe ’emet) indicates that these men must be seekers of truth, who know that the task of a judge is to give true judgment (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 220). The word “truth” includes the ideas of faithfulness or reliability, as well as factuality itself. It could be understood to mean “truthful men,” men whose word is reliable and true.

[18:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “haters of bribes.” Here is another objective genitive, one that refers to unjust gain. To hate unjust gain is to reject and refuse it. Their decisions will not be swayed by greed.

[18:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “over them”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:21]  ⁷ sn It is not clear how this structure would work in a judicial setting. The language of “captains of thousands,” etc., is used more for military ranks. There must have been more detailed instruction involved here, for each Israelite would have come under four leaders with this arrangement, and perhaps difficult cases would be sent to the next level. But since the task of these men would also involve instruction and guidance, the breakdown would be very useful. Deut 1:9, 13 suggest that the choice of these people was not simply Moses’ alone.

[19:15]  ⁸ tc Smr has the singular rather than the plural “you” of the MT, which brings this verb form into line with the ones surrounding it.

[19:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “You shall not do injustice in judgment” (NASB similar); cf. NIV “do not pervert justice.”

[19:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “You shall not lift up faces of poor [people] and you shall not honor faces of great.”

[19:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “In righteousness you shall judge your fellow citizen.”

[15:34]  ¹² tn The LXX renders this line: “for death is the witness of an ungodly man. “Death” represents “barren/sterile,” and “witness” represents “assembly.”

[15:34]  ¹³ sn This may refer to the fire that struck Job (cf. 1:16).

[15:34]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the tents of bribery.” The word “bribery” can mean a “gift,” but most often in the sense of a bribe in court. It indicates that the wealth and the possessions that the wicked man has gained may have been gained unjustly.

[36:18]  ¹⁵ tn The first expression is idiomatic: the text says, “because wrath lest it entice you” – thus, beware.

[36:18]  ¹⁶ tn The word is כֹּפֶר (kofer), often translated “ransom,” but frequently in the sense of a bribe.

[26:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “who [have] in their hands evil.”

[26:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and their right hand is full of a bribe.”

[6:35]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “lift up the face of,” meaning “regard.”

[6:35]  ²⁰ tn The word rendered “compensation” is כֹּפֶר (cofer); it is essentially a ransom price, a sum to be paid to deliver another from debt, bondage, or crime. The husband cannot accept payment as a ransom for a life, since what has happened cannot be undone so easily.

[6:35]  ²¹ tn BDB 1005 s.v. שֹׁחַד suggests that this term means “hush money” or “bribe” (cf. NIV, NRSV, NLT). C. H. Toy takes it as legal compensation (Proverbs [ICC], 142).

[15:27]  ²² 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]  ²³ 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]  ²⁴ tn Heb “his house.”

[15:27]  ²⁵ 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]  ²⁶ 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]  ²⁷ 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]  ²⁸ tn Heb “in the eyes of its owner.”

[17:8]  ²⁹ tn Heb “in all that he turns”; NASB, NIV “wherever he turns.”

[17:8]  ³⁰ 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.

[1:23]  ³¹ tn Or “stubborn”; CEV “have rejected me.”

[1:23]  ³² tn Heb “and companions of” (so KJV, NASB); CEV “friends of crooks.”

[1:23]  ³³ tn Heb “pursue”; NIV “chase after gifts.”

[1:23]  ³⁴ sn Isaiah may have chosen the word for gifts (שַׁלְמוֹנִים, shalmonim; a hapax legomena here), as a sarcastic pun on what these rulers should have been doing. Instead of attending to peace and wholeness (שָׁלוֹם, shalom), they sought after payoffs (שַׁלְמוֹנִים).

[1:23]  ³⁵ sn See the note at v. 17.

[1:23]  ³⁶ sn The rich oppressors referred to in Isaiah and the other eighth century prophets were not rich capitalists in the modern sense of the word. They were members of the royal military and judicial bureaucracies in Israel and Judah. As these bureaucracies grew, they acquired more and more land and gradually commandeered the economy and legal system. At various administrative levels bribery and graft become commonplace. The common people outside the urban administrative centers were vulnerable to exploitation in such a system, especially those, like widows and orphans, who had lost their family provider through death. Through confiscatory taxation, conscription, excessive interest rates, and other oppressive governmental measures and policies, they were gradually disenfranchised and lost their landed property, and with it, their rights as citizens. The socio-economic equilibrium envisioned in the law of Moses was radically disturbed.

[5:23]  ³⁷ 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).

[3:11]  ³⁸ sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).

[3:11]  ³⁹ tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”

[3:11]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”

[3:11]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “Is not the Lord in our midst?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he is!”

[3:11]  ⁴² tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”

[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.