Deuteronomy 16:19

Summary

The verse gives three parallel prohibitions addressed to a judicial figure: not to pervert justice, not to show favoritism, and not to accept bribes. It closes with a motive clause explaining that bribery blinds the perception of the wise and distorts the speech of the righteous.

Key words

• ta.Teh ("you will turn aside", H5186) — hiphil imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular; the causative stem indicates actively bending or diverting mishpat ("justice", H4941H) rather than merely deviating from it oneself.
• ta.Kir ("you will pay regard to", H5234A) — hiphil imperfect, 2nd masculine singular; the causative sense conveys actively "recognizing" or favoring a face rather than passive awareness.
• Sho.chad ("bribe", H7810) — masculine singular noun, repeated twice (once indefinite in the prohibition, once with the definite article ha- H9009 in the motive clause), shifting from a general category to "the bribe" as an acting force.
• ye.'a.Ver ("it makes blind", H5786) — piel imperfect, 3rd masculine singular; the intensive piel stem gives the bribe an active, forceful capacity to blind, with sho.chad as grammatical subject.
• sa.Lef ("it may pervert", H5557) — piel imperfect with vav, continuing the action of the previous verb; the vi- prefix (H9002) links it as a further result of the same subject, "the bribe."

What the text says

The verse is built on three short prohibitions, each formed with the negation lo' (H3808) followed by a 2nd-person masculine singular imperfect verb: ta.Teh ("you will turn aside") governing mishpat ("justice"), ta.Kir ("you will pay regard to") governing panim ("faces", H6440N, plural), and ti.Kach ("you will take", H3947H) governing shochad ("bribe"). This triple structure addresses one person consistently across all three commands, giving a uniform second-person voice throughout the prohibitive section.

The causal clause beginning with ki (H3588A, "for/because") shifts to third-person singular verbs whose subject is ha-shochad ("the bribe", now with the definite article), personifying the bribe as an agent that acts on two objects: einei chakhamim ("eyes of the wise", construct plural) and divrei tzaddikim ("words of the righteous", construct plural). The two verbs ye'aver ("blinds") and ysalef ("perverts") are joined by vi- (vav), presenting blinding and perverting as sequential or parallel effects of the same cause.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew presents three second-person singular prohibitions ("you will not turn aside... you will not regard... you will not take"). The LXX (Swete) gives only two prohibitions, both in third-person plural ("they will not recognize a face, nor will they take a gift"), differing in both grammatical person and clause count from the Hebrew. The Vulgate mixes persons: "nec in alteram partem declinent" ("nor let them turn aside," third-person plural) followed by "non accipies personam, nec munera" ("you will not accept a person, nor gifts," second-person singular), reflecting a structure closer to three clauses but with inconsistent grammatical person compared to the uniform second-person singular of the Hebrew.