Proverbs 17:23 (BSB)

A wicked man takes a covert bribe to subvert the course of justice.

From Proverbs 17. Also in the ESV.

Commentary on Proverbs 17:23

• Matthew Henry (Presbyterian), Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Proverbs 17:23: 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...
• John Gill (Reformed Baptist), Exposition of the Old and New Testaments on Proverbs 17:23: A wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom,.... Of another, of a rich man, who takes it out from thence, and offers it to him as a bribe. This he takes in the most secret manner, that it might not be seen by others; though the Arabic version renders it, "he that receives a gift in his own bosom commits iniquity"; it is...
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (Reformed), Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible on Proverbs 17:23: a gift . . . bosom--Money and other valuables were borne in a fold of the garment, called the bosom. to pervert--that is, by bribery.
• Geneva Bible Notes (Reformed), Geneva Bible Study Notes on Proverbs 17:23: A wicked [man] taketh a bribe out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment. (l) That is, secretly and out of the bosom of the rich.