SEV Biblia, Chapter 16:19
No tuerzas el derecho; no hagas acepción de personas, ni tomes soborno; porque el soborno ciega los ojos de los sabios, y pervierte las palabras de los justos.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 19. Thou shall not wrest judgment , etc.] Or pervert it, pass a wrong sentence, or act contrary to justice; this is said to the judges as a direction to them, and so what follows: thou shalt not respect persons ; so as to give the cause on account of outward circumstances and relations; as in favour of a rich man against a poor man merely for that reason, or of a near relation or intimate friend and acquaintance against a stranger, but justice should be administered without favour or affection to any; as Jarchi puts it, he was to make no difference in his address and behaviour to contending parties before him; he was not to be tender and soft to one and hard to the other, or let one stand and another sit: neither take a gift : as a bribe to give the cause wrong: at Thebes, in Egypt, as Diodorus Siculus relates, in a court on a wall, were images of judges to the number of thirty; in the midst of them was the chief judge; having Truth hanging down from his neck (which seems to be in imitation of the Urim of the high priest of the Jews), his eyes shut, and many books by him; by which image was shown, that judges should receive nothing, and that the chief judge should look to truth only: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous ; (see Exodus 23:8) the Jews have a saying, that a judge that takes a bribe, and perverts judgment, does not die of old age, or till his eyes become dim f184 .
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 18-22 - Care is taken for the due administration of justice. All persona regards must be laid aside, so that right is done to all, and wrong to none. Care is taken to prevent following the idolatrous customs of the heathen. Nothing belies God more, or tends more to corrupt the minds of men, than representing and worshipping, by an image, that God, who is an almighty and eternal Spirit, present every where. Alas! even in gospel days, and under a better dispensation, established upon bette promises, there is a tendency to set up idols, under one form of another, in the human heart __________________________________________________________________
Original Hebrew
לא 3808 תטה 5186 משׁפט 4941 לא 3808 תכיר 5234 פנים 6440 ולא 3808 תקח 3947 שׁחד 7810 כי 3588 השׁחד 7810 יעור 5786 עיני 5869 חכמים 2450 ויסלף 5557 דברי 1697 צדיקם׃ 6662
