What Does Deuteronomy 16:19 Mean?
You shall not bend judgment. You shall not recognize faces, nor take a bribe, for the bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the aligned.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.THE KEY
The “gift” is a bribe, and it corrupts judgment by clouding the wise person’s sight and twisting the righteous person’s words.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks wherever a decision about you or through you can be bent by favoritism or a payment meant to sway it. The bribe clouds the judge’s sight and twists the words that should carry a clear judgment. Wisdom and righteousness do not make anyone immune to that pressure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being wise or righteous makes someone immune to bought influence.
THE ROOT
שֹׁחַד
shōḥad
GROWS FROM
שחד
A bribe: a payment offered to influence a decision.
The Hebrew word names a bribe, carrying the payment’s intended influence within it. It is not just something given; it is meant to tilt what the judge sees and says.
ALSO GROWS
shōḥad: A bribe or payment meant to sway a decision.
שֹׁחַד
This is the noun used in the verse: the payment itself is already named by its corrupting purpose.
leshaḥed: To bribe.
לְשַׁחֵד
The verb from the same root makes explicit the action the noun describes: using a payment to influence judgment.
תַטֶּה
tatteh
GROWS FROM
נטה
To stretch, incline, or turn aside.
“bend” in this verse is tatteh. The command pictures judgment being pulled off its proper line. The verse then pairs that bent judgment with words being twisted, showing corruption as a distortion of both decision and speech.
ALSO GROWS
natah: To stretch out, incline, or turn aside.
נָטָה
The verse’s “wrest” comes from this verb: judgment is made to lean away from what is right.
matteh: A staff, rod, or tribe.
מַטֶּה
This related word carries the image of something extended; here the root’s sense of extension and inclination illuminates how judgment can be pulled off course.
עֵינֵי
ʿēnê
GROWS FROM
עין
Eye; also a spring or source.
“eyes” in this verse is ʿēnê. The Hebrew word for eye is also used for a spring or source. The bribe closes the wise person’s sight at the very point where discernment should flow.
ALSO GROWS
ʿayin: An eye; also a spring or source.
עַיִן
The verse says the bribe blinds the eyes, linking judgment to the source through which a person perceives.
maʿyan: A spring or fountain.
מַעְיָן
This word from the same root sense evokes a source of flowing perception; bribery obstructs that flow.
THE PATTERN
Judgment loses its straightness when payment or status shapes who is seen and heard.
You shall not recognize faces in judgment; hear and respond to the small as well as the great; do not shrink from the face of man; for the judgment is God's; and the word that is too hard for you, draw it near to me, and I will hear and respond to it.A wicked man takes a bribe out of the bosom, to bend the ways of judgment.My brothers, do not hold the trust of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Lord of weight, by receiving faces.THE THREAD
Do not take a bribe, for the bribe blinds the open-eyed and twists the words of the aligned.The same Hebrew word, שֹׁחַד (shōḥad), names the bribe in both verses, while the KJV renders it “gift.” Exodus repeats the same blindness and twisting, showing how one payment can corrupt both perception and speech.
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