You shall not pervert judgment; you shall not show partiality, neither take a bribe: for a bribe does blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.
Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come before them.
So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.
And among these nations shall you find no ease, neither shall the sole of your foot have rest: but the LORD shall give you there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:
He that walks righteously, and speaks uprightly; he that despises the gain of oppressions, that keeps his hands from the holding of bribes, that stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed, and shuts his eyes from seeing evil;
Behold, here I am: witness against me before the LORD, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose donkey have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind my eyes with? and I will restore it to you.
If you see the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of justice and righteousness in a province, marvel not at the matter: for the high official is watched by a higher one ; and there are yet higher ones over them.
All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time in which one man rules over another to his own hurt.