Discovery Box1 Samuel 8:3
Context8:3 But his sons did not follow 1 his ways. Instead, they made money dishonestly, accepted bribes, and perverted justice. 2
Psalms 26:9-10
Context26:9 Do not sweep me away 3 with sinners,
or execute me along with violent people, 4
26:10 who are always ready to do wrong 5
or offer a bribe. 6
Isaiah 1:23
Context1:23 Your officials are rebels, 7
they associate with 8 thieves.
All of them love bribery,
They do not take up the cause of the orphan, 11
or defend the rights of the widow. 12
Isaiah 33:15
Context33:15 The one who lives 13 uprightly 14
and speaks honestly;
the one who refuses to profit from oppressive measures
and rejects a bribe; 15
the one who does not plot violent crimes 16
and does not seek to harm others 17 –
Micah 3:11
Context3:11 Her 18 leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, 19
her priests proclaim rulings for profit,
and her prophets read omens for pay.
Yet they claim to trust 20 the Lord and say,
“The Lord is among us. 21
Disaster will not overtake 22 us!”
Micah 7:3
Context7:3 They are determined to be experts at doing evil; 23
government officials and judges take bribes, 24
prominent men make demands,
and they all do what is necessary to satisfy them. 25
[8:3] 1 tn Heb “walk in” (also in v. 5).
[8:3] 2 tn Heb “and they turned aside after unjust gain and took bribes and perverted justice.”
[26:9] 3 tn Heb “do not gather up my life with.”
[26:9] 4 tn Heb “or with men of bloodshed my life.” The verb is supplied; it is understood by ellipsis (see the preceding line).
[26:10] 5 tn Heb “who [have] in their hands evil.”
[26:10] 6 tn Heb “and their right hand is full of a bribe.”
[1:23] 7 tn Or “stubborn”; CEV “have rejected me.”
[1:23] 8 tn Heb “and companions of” (so KJV, NASB); CEV “friends of crooks.”
[1:23] 9 tn Heb “pursue”; NIV “chase after gifts.”
[1:23] 10 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] 11 sn See the note at v. 17.
[1:23] 12 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.
[33:15] 13 tn Heb “walks” (so NASB, NIV).
[33:15] 14 tn Or, possibly, “justly”; NAB “who practices virtue.”
[33:15] 15 tn Heb “[who] shakes off his hands from grabbing hold of a bribe.”
[33:15] 16 tn Heb “[who] shuts his ear from listening to bloodshed.”
[33:15] 17 tn Heb “[who] closes his eyes from seeing evil.”
[3:11] 18 sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).
[3:11] 19 tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”
[3:11] 20 tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”
[3:11] 21 tn Heb “Is not the
[3:11] 22 tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”
[7:3] 23 tn Heb “upon evil [are their] hands to do [it] well.”
[7:3] 24 tn Heb “the official asks – and the judge – for a bribe.”
[7:3] 25 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.
