Exodus 23:8

gift(twice)] bribe, as the same word is rendered in EVV. of 1 Samuel 8:3; Isaiah 33:15, and in RV. of Ezekiel 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, Isaiah 1:23; Isaiah 5:23; Micah 3:11; Ezekiel 22:12; Psalms 26:10; Proverbs 17:8; Proverbs 17:23; it is what the righteous man never does, Psalms 15:5; Isaiah 33:15, nor Jehovah, Deuteronomy 10:17; it is forbidden, as here, in Deuteronomy 16:19, and cursed, if its object be to -slay an innocent person," in Deuteronomy 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 verbatimin Deuteronomy 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 Exodus 24:14, with the note, Joshua 20:4 (lit. -his words"), 2 Samuel 15:3 (lit. -thy words"). For -subverteth," cf. Proverbs 19:3; Proverbs 22:12 (-overthroweth").