Micah 7:3

7:3 They are determined to be experts at doing evil; ¹ 

government officials and judges take bribes, ² 

prominent men make demands,

and they all do what is necessary to satisfy them. ³ 

Numbers 16:15

16:15 Moses was very angry, and he said to the Lord, “Have no respect ⁴  for their offering! I have not taken so much as one donkey from them, nor have I harmed any one of them!”

Numbers 16:1

The Rebellion of Korah

16:1 ⁵ Now Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth, who were Reubenites, ⁶  took men ⁷ 

Numbers 8:3

8:3 And Aaron did so; he set up the lamps to face toward the front of the lampstand, as the Lord commanded Moses.

Numbers 12:3-4

12:3 (Now the man Moses was very humble, ⁸  more so than any man on the face of the earth.)

The Response of the Lord

12:4 The Lord spoke immediately to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam: “The three of you come to the tent of meeting.” So the three of them went.

Isaiah 1:23

1:23 Your officials are rebels, ⁹ 

they associate with ¹⁰  thieves.

All of them love bribery,

and look for ¹¹  payoffs. ¹² 

They do not take up the cause of the orphan, ¹³ 

or defend the rights of the widow. ¹⁴ 

Ezekiel 22:12

22:12 They take bribes within you to shed blood. You engage in usury and charge interest; ¹⁵  you extort money from your neighbors. You have forgotten me, ¹⁶  declares the sovereign Lord. ¹⁷ 

Ezekiel 22:27

22:27 Her officials are like wolves in her midst rending their prey – shedding blood and destroying lives – so they can get dishonest profit.

Hosea 4:18

The Shameful Sinners Will Be Brought to Shame

4:18 They consume their alcohol,

then engage in cult prostitution;

they dearly love their shameful behavior.

Zephaniah 3:3

3:3 Her princes ¹⁸  are as fierce as roaring lions; ¹⁹ 

her rulers ²⁰  are as hungry as wolves in the desert, ²¹ 

who completely devour their prey by morning. ²² 

[7:3]  ¹ tn Heb “upon evil [are their] hands to do [it] well.”

[7:3]  ² tn Heb “the official asks – and the judge – for a bribe.”

[7:3]  ³ 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.

[16:15]  ⁴ tn The verb means “to turn toward”; it is a figurative expression that means “to pay attention to” or “to have regard for.” So this is a prayer against Dathan and Abiram.

[16:1]  ⁵ sn There are three main movements in the story of ch. 16. The first is the rebellion itself (vv. 1-19). The second is the judgment (vv. 20-35). Third is the atonement for the rebels (vv. 36-50). The whole chapter is a marvelous account of a massive rebellion against the leaders that concludes with reconciliation. For further study see G. Hort, “The Death of Qorah,” ABR 7 (1959): 2-26; and J. Liver, “Korah, Dathan and Abiram,” Studies in the Bible (ScrHier 8), 189-217.

[16:1]  ⁶ tc The MT reading is plural (“the sons of Reuben”); the Smr and LXX have the singular (“the son of Reuben”).

[16:1]  ⁷ tn In the Hebrew text there is no object for the verb “took.” The translation presented above supplies the word “men.” However, it is possible that the MT has suffered damage here. The LXX has “and he spoke.” The Syriac and Targum have “and he was divided.” The editor of BHS suggests that perhaps the MT should be emended to “and he arose.”

[12:3]  ⁸ tc The spelling of the word is a Kethib-Qere reading with only a slight difference between the two.

[1:23]  ⁹ tn Or “stubborn”; CEV “have rejected me.”

[1:23]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and companions of” (so KJV, NASB); CEV “friends of crooks.”

[1:23]  ¹¹ tn Heb “pursue”; NIV “chase after gifts.”

[1:23]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ sn See the note at v. 17.

[1:23]  ¹⁴ 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.

[22:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “usury and interest you take.” See 18:13, 17. This kind of economic exploitation violated the law given in Lev 25:36.

[22:12]  ¹⁶ sn Forgetting the Lord is also addressed in Deut 6:12; 8:11, 14; Jer 3:21; 13:25; Ezek 23:35; Hos 2:15; 8:14; 13:6.

[22:12]  ¹⁷ tn The second person verb forms are feminine singular in Hebrew, indicating that the personified city is addressed here as representing its citizens.

[3:3]  ¹⁸ tn Or “officials.”

[3:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “her princes in her midst are roaring lions.” The metaphor has been translated as a simile (“as fierce as”) for clarity.

[3:3]  ²⁰ tn Traditionally “judges.”

[3:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “her judges [are] wolves of the evening,” that is, wolves that prowl at night. The translation assumes an emendation to עֲרָבָה (’aravah, “desert”). For a discussion of this and other options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 128. The metaphor has been translated as a simile (“as hungry as”) for clarity.

[3:3]  ²² tn Heb “they do not gnaw [a bone] at morning.” The precise meaning of the line is unclear. The statement may mean these wolves devour their prey so completely that not even a bone is left to gnaw by the time morning arrives. For a discussion of this and other options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 129.