Ecclesiastes 7:7
Extorting money from others makes wise people into fools, and accepting bribes corrupts the mind.
Free Bible Version
In The King James Version
Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad; and a gift destroyeth the heart.
In Context
8Completing something is better than starting it. Being patient is better than being proud.
Cross References
Deuteronomy 16:19Don't pervert justice or show favoritism. Don't take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the wise and twists the words of the truthful.
Deuteronomy 28:65You won't find any place to rest among those nations, no place of your own. The Lord will make you anxious, with failing eyesight and a mind full of despair.
1 Samuel 12:3I stand here before you. Bring any charges you have against me in the presence of the Lord and of his anointed one. Have I taken anyone's ox or donkey? Have I wronged anyone? Have I oppressed anyone? Have I accepted a bribe from anyone to turn a blind eye? Tell me, and I will repay you.”
Proverbs 17:8Whoever gives a bribe thinks it's a magical stone—that wherever they turn they'll have success!
Ecclesiastes 4:1Then I turned to consider all the ways people oppress others here on earth. Look at the tears of the oppressed—there's no one to comfort them! Powerful people oppress them, and there's no one to comfort them!
Isaiah 33:15Those who live right and speak the truth, those who refuse to profit from extortion and refuse to take bribes, who don't listen to plots to kill people, who close their eyes rather than look at evil.
Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 7:2-7
The Value of a Good Name. 1 A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth. 2 It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart. 3 Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. 4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. 5 It is better to hear the rebuke of… Read the whole commentary →