Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 16:19
Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.
19. Thou ] The whole people are responsible for the impartial discharge of justice: characteristic of D.
shalt not wrest judgement ] E, Exo 23:6: the judgement of thy poor in his cause.
thou shalt not respect persons ] See on Deu 1:17.
neither shalt thou take a gift, etc.] So E, Exo 23:8, except that for the eyes of the wise it has the open-eyed or them that have sight.
a gift ] Heb. shoad, of a present in order to influence justice, a bribe (Deu 10:17), a prevalent temptation of judges in the East, where he is regarded as still a just judge who takes gifts only from the party in the right, as it were a fee for his judgement or an inducement to hasten it. Here, however, the acceptance of any gift by a judge is forbidden. In the Code of ammurabi the 5th law, expelling from office the judge who alters his decision, implies that he does this for some unjust reason such as a bribe. On bribery among the settled Arabs see Doughty Ar. Des. i. 607.
words ] Statements or pleas, equivalent to cause or case.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Deu 16:19
Thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift.
Equality before the law
I. Some facts and tendencies in legal administration.
1. The sentence pronounced against a poor man is often very heavy, and that against a rich man very light. In New Jersey a poor man was sentenced to five years of hard labour in prison for stealing a ham; in the same court a rich banker, who had ruined two banks and stolen the money of hundreds of people, received the same sentence.
2. After conviction rich convicts receive favours. In the case just cited the poor man and the rich man went to the same prison. But the poor man was put at hard labour; the rich man was made clerk in the prison library.
3. Rich men have an unfair advantage over poor men when brought to trial. The big fee that hires the eloquent pleader buys out the law.
4. Even judges are sometimes corrupt.
5. Juries are accused of taking bribes.
II. The perils of these forms of injustice.
1. They threaten the property and lives of the poor.
2. They weaken the spirit of obedience (Num 22:23).
3. They develop the communistic spirit of destruction.
4. We are all unsafe when one poor wretch is unsafe only because he lacks money or friends.
III. The remedies for existing evils.
1. More and better teaching, in home, school, and church, on Gods law of equality.
2. Wiser conversation on such matters when citizens meet together. It is dangerous and unpatriotic to treat the miscarriage of justice as a jest.
3. A sound public opinion should be cultivated by press, pulpit, and platform.
4. Our social power may be used to condemn a triumph over the law.
5. Seek to associate in all minds the idea of obedience to God with that of just judgment. (Homiletic Monthly.)
An upright judge
Judge Sewall, of Massachusetts, went into a hatters shop in order to purchase a pair of shoe brushes. The master of the shop presented him with a couple. What is your price? said the judge. If they will answer your purpose, replied the other, you may have them and welcome. The judge, upon hearing this, laid them down, and bowing, was leaving the shop; upon which the hatter said to him, Pray, sir, your honour has forgotten the principal object of your visit. By no means, answered the judge; if you please to set a price, I am ready to purchase; but ever since it has fallen to my lot to occupy a seat on the bench, I have studiously avoided receiving to the value of a single copper, lest at some future period of my life it might have some kind of influence in determining my judgment.
The acceptance of bribes discouraged
In the Soudan, he said, he had 6000 a year, as Governor, but he brought nothing out of the country when he returned to England. He spent his income in adding to the insufficient salaries of the officials, to keep them from accepting bribes, and thus to secure justice for the people at large. (Memoir of General Gordon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Not wrest judgment, i.e. not give a perverse, forced, and unjust sentence. See Poole “Exo 23:8“.
Not respect persons, i.e. not give sentence according to the quality of the person, his riches or poverty, friendship or enmity, but according to the justice of the cause.
A gift doth blind the eyes of the wise; corrupts and biasseth his mind, that as he will not, so ofttimes he cannot, discern between right and wrong.
The words of the righteous; either,
1. The words, i.e. the sentence, of those judges who are inclined and used to do righteous things, and have the repute of righteous men, it makes them give wrong judgment. Or,
2. The words, i.e. the matters, or causes, (as word oft signifies,) of righteous persons, or of them whose cause is just.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Thou shall not wrest judgment,…. 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 y 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 Ex 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 z.
y Bibliothec. l. 1. c. 45. z Misn. Peah, c. 8. sect. 9.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(19) See Exo. 23:6; Exo. 23:8.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Deu 16:19 Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.
Ver. 19. Neither take a gift. ] Rain is good, and ground is good; yet, ex eorum coniunctione fit luturn, by the mixture of those two is made dirt: so giving is kind, and taking is courteous; yet the mixing of them makes the smooth paths of justice foul and uneven.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
thou shalt not. A special reading, known as Sevir, has “neither shalt thou”. See App-34.
gift = bribe.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
wrest: Deu 24:17, Deu 27:19, Exo 23:2, Exo 23:6-8, Lev 19:15, 1Sa 8:3, 1Sa 12:3, Job 31:21, Job 31:22, Pro 17:23, Ecc 7:7, Isa 1:17, Isa 1:23, Isa 33:15, Jer 5:28, Eze 22:12, Mic 7:3, Hab 1:4, Zep 3:3-5, Act 16:37, Act 23:3
respect: Deu 1:16, Deu 1:17, Deu 10:17, Exo 23:7, Exo 23:8, Pro 24:23, Pro 24:28, Act 10:34
words: or, matters
Reciprocal: Exo 18:21 – hating Exo 21:26 – General Exo 22:9 – the cause of both parties Lev 25:14 – General Deu 21:2 – General Deu 27:25 – General 1Sa 8:1 – made his 1Ki 21:8 – the elders 2Ch 19:7 – taking of gifts Job 32:21 – accept Psa 15:5 – nor taketh Psa 26:10 – bribes Psa 58:1 – Do Pro 15:27 – but Pro 17:8 – gift Pro 18:5 – not Isa 5:23 – for reward Hos 4:18 – her Mar 12:14 – for thou Joh 7:24 – General Act 24:26 – hoped Rom 2:11 – General 1Ti 6:10 – the love Jam 2:1 – with 2Pe 3:16 – wrest
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Deu 16:19-20. Thou shalt not wrest judgment Not give a forced and unjust sentence. Thou shalt not respect persons Not give sentence according to the quality of the person, his riches or poverty, friendship or enmity, but according to the justice of the cause. A gift doth blind the eyes of the wise Biases his mind, that he cannot discern between right and wrong. And pervert the words of the righteous That is, the sentence of those judges who are inclined and used to do righteous things, and have the reputation of being righteous men; it makes them give a wrong judgment. That which is altogether just Hebrew, righteousness, righteousness, doubling the expression to give it emphasis; that is, nothing but righteousness in all causes and times, and to all persons equally.