Ecclesiastes 7:7

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition 2021

Surely oppression makes the wise foolish, and a bribe corrupts the heart.

Cross References

Exodus 23:8

You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds officials and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.

Proverbs 17:23

The wicked accept a concealed bribe to pervert the ways of justice.

Proverbs 17:8

A bribe is like a magic stone in the eyes of those who give it; wherever they turn they prosper.

Ecclesiastes 4:1

Again I saw all the oppressions that are practiced under the sun. Look, the tears of the oppressed—with no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power—with no one to comfort them.

Ecclesiastes 5:8

If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and right, do not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them.

Ecclesiastes 8:9

All this I observed, applying my mind to all that is done under the sun, while one person exercises authority over another to the other’s hurt.

Isaiah 1:23

Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not defend the orphan, and the widow’s cause does not come before them.

Isaiah 33:15

Those who walk righteously and speak uprightly, who despise the gain of oppression, who wave away a bribe instead of accepting it, who stop their ears from hearing of bloodshed and shut their eyes from looking on evil,

Deuteronomy 16:19

You must not distort justice; you must not show partiality; and you must not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.

Deuteronomy 28:65

Among those nations you shall find no ease, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a languishing spirit.

1 Samuel 12:3

Here I am; testify 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 from whose hand have I taken a bribe to blind my eyes with it? Testify against me, and I will restore it to you.”

1 Samuel 21:14

Achish said to his servants, “Look, you see the man is mad; why then have you brought him to me?

1 Samuel 8:3

Yet his sons did not follow in his ways but turned aside after gain; they took bribes and perverted justice.