Which justify the wicked for reward
This is either spoken of judges, and civil magistrates, who gave
the cause in favour of the wicked, that bribed them, contrary to
law, ( Deuteronomy
16:19 ) or rather of the Scribes and Pharisees, who
pronounced the wicked righteous men, provided they kept the
traditions of the elders, and paid tithes of all they possessed,
and gave them money for their long prayers, ( Matthew 23:14
Matthew
23:23 ) : and take away the righteousness of the
righteous from him;
by condemning them as unrighteous persons: so the Jews did Christ
and his apostles; they pronounced them wicked, and condemned them
to death; and as much as in them lay took away their
righteousness from them, by taking away their character from them
as righteous persons among men; though their righteousness itself
could not be taken away, it being an everlasting one.