Exodus 23:8

8 Take thou not gifts, that blind, yea, prudent men, and destroy the words of just men. (Do not take gifts, or bribes, that blind, yea, the prudent, and that destroy the words of the just.)

Exodus 23:8 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 23:8

And thou shalt take no gift
Of the persons whose cause is to be tried in a court of judicature before judges; neither of those on the one side nor on the other, neither before the trial nor after, neither by words, by a promise, nor by facts, by actually receiving money; and not even to judge truly, as Jarchi observes, neither to clear the innocent nor to condemn the guilty: a gift was not to be taken on any consideration whatever:

for the gift blindeth the wise;
or the "seeing" ^F1; the open ones, who used to have both their eyes and their ears open, and attentive to the cause before them; and yet a gift so blinds them, by casting such a mist before them, that they are inattentive to the true merits of the cause, and their affections and judgments are to be carried away in favour of those that have bribed them, as to pass a wrong sentence:

and perverteth the words of the righteous;
either the sentences of righteous judges, as they ought to be, but a gift perverts their judgment, and they give a wrong decree; or the causes of the righteous that are brought before those are perverted by giving the cause to their adversaries, who are wicked men.

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 (Myxqp) "videntes", Pagninus, Vatablus, Cartwright; "apertos", Montanus, Drusius.

Exodus 23:8 In-Context

6 Thou shalt not bow [away] from truth in the doom of a poor man. (Thou shalt not turn away from the truth in the judgement of a poor person.)

7 Thou shalt flee leasing. Thou shalt not slay an innocent man, and just; for I am adversary to a wicked man. (Thou shalt flee from lies. Thou shalt not kill the innocent, or the just; for I am the adversary to the wicked.)

8 Take thou not gifts, that blind, yea, prudent men, and destroy the words of just men. (Do not take gifts, or bribes, that blind, yea, the prudent, and that destroy the words of the just.)

9 Thou shalt not be dis-easeful of a pilgrim, for ye know the souls of comelings, for also ye were pilgrims in the land of Egypt. (Thou shalt not mis-treat a foreigner, for ye know the souls of newcomers, for ye were foreigners in the land of Egypt.)

10 Six years thou shalt sow thy land, and thou shalt gather [the] fruits thereof;