1 Samuel 8:3

1Sa 8:3 And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.

Ver. 3. And his sons walked not in his ways.] Heroum filii noxae. Grace is by gift, not inheritance. {See Trapp on "1Sa 3:12"} This was no fault of Samuel’s, as hath been said. Plato worthily blameth Darius for so ill breeding his son Xerxes, whereas he had seen the evil consequence in Cyrus’s breeding Cambyses, whom Darius succeeded in the empire.

But turned aside after lucre.] Whereas a public person, as he should have nothing to lose, so nothing to get: he should be above all price or sale. Nec prece, nec precio, should be his motto.

And perverted judgment.] Which to prevent, the Areopagites judged always in the dark, that they might neither respect persons nor take gifts.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Sa 8:3. Took bribes — Opportunity and temptation discovered that corruption in them which, till now, was hid from their father, and, it may be, from themselves. It has often been the grief of holy men, that their children did not tread in their steps. So far from it, that the sons of eminently good men have been often eminently wicked.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8:3 they were not like their father: They were more like Eli’s two sons (2:12-17). Their corruption was a primary reason the era of the judges ended.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 3. His sons walked not in his ways] Their iniquity is pointed out in three words:

1. They turned aside after lucre; the original (בצע batsa) signifies to cut, clip, break off; and therefore Mr. Parkhurst thinks that it means nearly the same with our clipping of coin. It however expresses here the idea of avarice, of getting money by hook or by crook. The Targum says, "They looked after ממון דשקר mamon dishkar, the mammon of unrighteousness;" of which they did not make unto themselves friends but enemies; See Clarke on Mt 6:24.

2. They took bribes; שחד shochad, gifts or presents, to blind their eyes.

3. They perverted judgment - they turned judgment aside; they put it out of its regular path; they sold it to the highest bidder: thus the wicked rich man had his cause, and the poor man was oppressed and deprived of his right.

This was the custom in our own country before MAGNA CHARTA was obtained; he that would speed in the king's court must bribe all the officers, and fee both the king and queen! I have found in our ancient records the most barefaced and shameful examples of this kind; but it was totally abolished, invito rege, by that provision in the above charter which states, Nulli vendemus, nulli negabimvs ant differemus rectum aut judicium; "To no man will we sell, to no man will we deny or defer, justice and right." It was customary in those inauspicious times, for judgment to be delayed in banco regis, in the king's court, as long as there was any hope that more money would be paid in order to bring it to issue. And there were cases, where the king did not like the party, in which he denied justice and judgment entirely! Magna Charta brought them to book, and brought the subject to his right.

Of those times it might well be said, as Homer did, Iliad xvi., ver. 387.

Οἱ βιῃ αγορη σκολιας κρινωσι θεμιστας,

Εκ δε δικην ελασωσι, θεων οπιν ουκ αλεγοντες.

"When guilty mortals break the eternal laws,

Or judges, bribed, betray the righteous cause."

"When the laws are perverted by force; when justice is expelled from her seat; when judges are swayed from the right, regardless of the vengeance of Heaven." Or, in other words, these were times in which the streams of justice were poisoned in their source, and judges neither feared God nor regarded man.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(3) Took bribes, and perverted judgment.—This sin, at all times a fatally common one in the East, was especially denounced in the Law. (See Exo_23:6-8; Deu_16:19.) It is strange that the same ills that ruined Eli’s house, owing to the evil conduct of his children, now threatened Samuel. The prophet-judge, however, acted differently to the high priestly judge. The sons of Samuel were evidently, through their father’s action in procuring the election of Saul, quickly deposed from their authority. The punishment seems to have been successful in correcting the corrupt tendencies of these men, for we hear in after days of the high position occupied at the court of David by the distinguished descendants of the noble and disinterested prophet. (See the notices in 1Ch_6:33; 1Ch_25:4-5, respecting Heman, the grandson of Samuel, the king’s seer, who was chief of the choir of the Psalmist-king in the house of God.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3. turned aside after Lucre] From the straight-forward path of their father’s example. Lucre (from Lat. lucrum) is only used in the E. V. in a bad sense of ill-gotten gain.

took bribes and perverted judgment] The same phrases are coupled together in Deu_16:19, though differently translated in the E. V. “Thou shalt not wrest judgment … nor take a gift.” Cp. Exo_23:6; Exo_23:8.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And his sons walked not in his ways,.... The meaning of which is not that they did not go the circuit he did, which is too low a sense of the words some Jewish writers give; but they did not walk in the fear of God, in the paths of religion and righteousness, truth and holiness; they neither served God, nor did justice to men, as Samuel had done:

but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment; indulged to covetousness, sought to get riches at any rate, took bribes, which blind the eyes of judges; and so passed wrong judgment, and gave the cause to those that gave the largest gifts, right or wrong.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Judgment. Samuel was not to blame, and hence he was not punished like Heli. (Menochius) --- However, the misconduct of the children of these two judges, in succession, (Haydock) gave occasion to the people to demand a king, who might not be tempted by bribes. (Worthington) --- It is surprising that most of the great men who are mentioned in history, had degenerate children. (Calmet) --- Such were some of David’s sons, as well as Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, &c. (Haydock) --- Was it because their fathers were too much taken up with the affairs of state, to watch over the education of their children? or rather, because these young men confided too much on the merits of their family, and took no pains to tread in the footsteps of their parents? (Calmet) --- "We have here, says Josephus, a manifest proof that children do not always resemble their parents, but sometimes good men spring from the wicked; and on the contrary, the virtuous have an evil progeny."

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Opportunity and temptation drew forth and discovered the corruption in them, which till now was hid from their father, and, it may be, from themselves.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

3. Turned aside after lucre… took bribes… perverted judgment — Three evils which cannot be too strongly reprobated in a judge. The Hebrew word בצע, here translated lucre, means properly ill-gotten gain — that which is obtained by violence or fraud. The judge who covetously puts his hand on ill-gotten gain will be easily overcome with bribery, and he who takes bribes will necessarily pervert judgment and truth.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

His sonstook bribes. This sin was expressly forbidden in Exo_23:6, Exo_23:8; Deu_16:19, and it marks the high spirit of the nation that it was so indignant at justice being thus perverted. They walked not in his way (singular so the written text) for Samuel"s own administration of justice had been most upright, (1Sa_12:4) nor is it laid to his charge that he connived at the misconduct of his sons. On the contrary, after remonstrance indeed, not for his sons" sake, but for the honour of the theocracy, and that the people might be on their guard against a despotic exercise of the power with which they were about to intrust a single man, he superseded not them only, but also himself. His conduct in this trying conjuncture was most admirable, and few commentators have done justice to the man, who, possessed of what was virtually kingly power, yet gave it over for the nation"s good into the hands of another.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Took bribes - Opportunity and temptation discovered that corruption in them which 'till now was hid from their father. It has often been the grief of holy men, that their children did not tread in their steps. So far from it, that the sons of eminently good men, have been often eminently wicked.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

They were swayed. Themselves.

[They] perverted. Something else, i.e., justice. Our Rabbis said that Shmuel's sons did not sin. They merely did not follow in their father's ways. Their father would travel to all places in Yisroel, and judge them in their cities. But they did not do so, in order to increase the income of their agents and scribes.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.