Matthew Henry on Proverbs 28:21
Note, 1. It is a fundamental error in the administration of justice, and that which cannot but lead men to abundance of transgression, to consider the parties concerned more than the merits of the cause, so as to favour one because he is a gentleman, a scholar, my countryman, my old acquaintance, has formerly done me a kindness, or may do me one, or is of my party and persuasion, and to bear hard on the other party because he is a stranger, a poor man, has done me an ill turn, is or has been my rival, or is not of my mind, or has voted against me. Judgment is perverted when any consideration of this kind is admitted into the scale, any thing but pure right. 2. Those that are partial will be…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 28:21
respect of persons-- (Pro 24:23). Such are led to evil by the slightest motive.
John Gill on Proverbs 28:21
To have respect of persons is not good, &c. In courts of judicature, to give a cause or pass sentence in favour of a person, because he is rich, or is a relation, a friend, an acquaintance, or has done a kindness; and against another, because of the reverse, Leviticus 19:15; nor in religious assemblies, making a difference between the rich and the poor, James 2:1; this is not good in itself, nor productive of good effects, and cannot be well pleasing to God, who himself is no respecter of persons;
for for a piece of bread that man will transgress; the laws of God and men; having used himself to such unrighteous methods of proceeding, he will do any base action for a small gain, he will stic…
Read the whole note in the consoleKeil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 28:21
With a proverb, in the first half of which is repeated the beginning of the second appendix, Pro 24:23, a new group commences:
21 Respect of persons is not good;
And for a morsel of bread a man may become a transgressor.
Line first refers to the administration of justice, and line second - the special generalized - to social life generally. The "morsel of bread," as example of a bribe by means of which the favour of the judge is purchased, is too low a conception. Hitzig well: "even a trifle, a morsel of bread (Sa1 2:36), may, as it awakens favour and dislike within us, thus in general call forth in the will an inclination tending to draw one aside from the line of strict rectitude." Geier c…
