Proverbs 17:23
A wicked man taketh gifts from the bosom, to mis-turn the paths of doom. (A wicked person accepeth secret gifts, or bribes, to pervert the course of justice.)
Wycliffe Modern Spelling
In The King James Version
A wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment.
In Context
Cross References
Deuteronomy 16:19and bow they not into the other part for favour, either gift. Thou shalt not take a person, neither gifts, for why gifts blind the eyes of wise men, and change the words of just men, (or Thou shalt not show favour to anyone, nor take a bribe, or a gift, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise, and change the words of the just).
1 Samuel 12:3And lo! I am ready; speak ye to me before the Lord, and before the christ of him/before his anointed, or king; whether I have taken any man’s ox, either his ass; if I have falsely challenged any man; if I have oppressed any man; if I have taken gift of any man’s hand; I shall despise it today, and I shall restore (it) to you. (And behold! I am ready; speak ye to me before the Lord, and before his anointed king; have I taken any man’s ox, or his donkey; have I falsely challenged any man; have I oppressed any man; have I taken a gift from any man’s hand? yea, if I have, I shall despise it today, and I shall restore it to you.)
Proverbs 18:16The gift of a man alargeth his way; and maketh space to him before princes. (Giving a gift openeth, (or smootheth), one’s way; and maketh an opening for thee among the leaders, (or among the powerful).)
Isaiah 1:23Thy princes be unfaithful, the fellows of thieves; all love gifts, and follow yieldings, either meeds; they deem not to a fatherless child, and the cause of a widow entereth not to them. (Thy leaders be unfaithful, the friends of thieves; all of them love gifts, and follow after bribes, or rewards; they do not judge favourably for a fatherless child, and a widow’s case never even cometh before them.)
Ezekiel 22:12They took gifts of thee, to shed out blood; thou tookest usury and overabundance, and thou challengedest greedily thy neighbours, and thou hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God. (They took gifts, or bribes, in thee to shed out blood; thou hast taken usury and overabundance, and thou hast oppressed thy neighbours for greed, and thou hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God.)
Micah 3:9Hear these things, ye princes of the house of Jacob, and doomsmen of the house of Israel, which loathe doom, and pervert all right things; (Hear these things, ye leaders of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who hate justice, and pervert, or warp, every good, or right, thing;)
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 17:23
22 A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones. Note, 1. It is healthful to be cheerful. The Lord is for the body, and has provided for it, not only meat, but medicine, and has here told us that the best medicine is a merry heart, not a heart addicted to vain, carnal, sensual mirth; Solomon himself said of that mirth, It is not medicine, but madness; it is not food, but poison; what doth it? But he means a heart rejoicing in God, and serving him with gladness, and then taking the… Read the whole commentary →