1 Samuel 8:3

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

And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment. His sons walked not in his ways.

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.

1 Samuel 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. 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.

(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 Exodus 23:6-8; Deuteronomy 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 1 Chronicles 6:33; 1 Chronicles 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.)

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 Matthew 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. Οἱβιῃαγορησκολιαςκρινωσιθεμιστας, Εκδεδικηνελασωσι, θεωνοπινουκαλεγοντες. "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.

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 Deuteronomy 16:19, though differently translated in the E. V. “Thou shalt not wrest judgment … nor take a gift.” Cp. Exodus 23:6; Exodus 23:8.

3. Turned aside after lucre… took bribes… perverted judgment — Three evils which cannot be too strongly reprobated in a judge.