23:8 “You must not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see 1 and subverts the words of the righteous.
16:1 Observe the month Abib 4 and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in that month 5 he 6 brought you out of Egypt by night.
17:23 A wicked person receives a bribe secretly 14
to pervert 15 the ways of justice.
1:23 Your officials are rebels, 16
they associate with 17 thieves.
All of them love bribery,
and look for 18 payoffs. 19
They do not take up the cause of the orphan, 20
or defend the rights of the widow. 21
33:15 The one who lives 22 uprightly 23
and speaks honestly;
the one who refuses to profit from oppressive measures
and rejects a bribe; 24
the one who does not plot violent crimes 25
and does not seek to harm others 26 –
1 tn Heb “blinds the open-eyed.”
2 tn Heb “twist, overturn”; NRSV “subverts the cause.”
3 tn Or “innocent”; NRSV “those who are in the right”; NLT “the godly.”
4 sn The month Abib, later called Nisan (Neh 2:1; Esth 3:7), corresponds to March-April in the modern calendar.
5 tn Heb “in the month Abib.” The demonstrative “that” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.
6 tn Heb “the
7 tn Heb “manna which you and your ancestors did not know.” By popular etymology the word “manna” comes from the Hebrew phrase מָן הוּא (man hu’), i.e., “What is it?” (Exod 16:15). The question remains unanswered to this very day. Elsewhere the material is said to be “white like coriander seed” with “a taste like honey cakes” (Exod 16:31; cf. Num 11:7). Modern attempts to associate it with various desert plants are unsuccessful for the text says it was a new thing and, furthermore, one that appeared and disappeared miraculously (Exod 16:21-27).
8 tn Heb “in order to make known to you.” In the Hebrew text this statement is subordinated to what precedes, resulting in a very long sentence in English. The translation makes this statement a separate sentence for stylistic reasons.
9 tn Heb “the man,” but in a generic sense, referring to the whole human race (“mankind” or “humankind”).
10 tn The Hebrew term may refer to “food” in a more general sense (cf. CEV).
11 sn Jesus quoted this text to the devil in the midst of his forty-day fast to make the point that spiritual nourishment is incomparably more important than mere physical bread (Matt 4:4; cf. Luke 4:4).
12 sn Sacred pillars. These are the stelae (stone pillars; the Hebrew term is מַצֵּבֹת, matsevot) associated with Baal worship, perhaps to mark a spot hallowed by an alleged visitation of the gods. See also Deut 7:5.
13 sn Sacred Asherah poles. The Hebrew term (plural) is אֲשֵׁרִים (’asherim). See note on the word “(leafy) tree” in v. 2, and also Deut 7:5.
14 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.”
15 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.
16 tn Or “stubborn”; CEV “have rejected me.”
17 tn Heb “and companions of” (so KJV, NASB); CEV “friends of crooks.”
18 tn Heb “pursue”; NIV “chase after gifts.”
19 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).
20 sn See the note at v. 17.
21 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.
22 tn Heb “walks” (so NASB, NIV).
23 tn Or, possibly, “justly”; NAB “who practices virtue.”
24 tn Heb “[who] shakes off his hands from grabbing hold of a bribe.”
25 tn Heb “[who] shuts his ear from listening to bloodshed.”
26 tn Heb “[who] closes his eyes from seeing evil.”