KJV: A wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment.
ASV: A wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment.
Matthew Henry Commentary
23 A wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment.
See here, 1. What an evil thing bribery is: He is a wicked man that will take a gift to engage him to give a false testimony, verdict, or judgment; when he does it he is ashamed of it, for he takes it, with all the secresy imaginable, out of the bosom where he knows it is laid ready for him; it is industriously concealed, and so slyly that, if he could, he would hide it from his own conscience. A gift is taken out of the bosom of a wicked man (so some read it); for he is a bad man that gives bribes, as well as he that takes them. 2. What a powerful thing it is. It is of such force that it perverts the ways of judgment. The course of justice is not only obstructed, but turned into injustice; and the greatest wrongs are done under colour of doing right.
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