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 the note 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.

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.

his sons

2 Samuel 15:4 Absalom said moreover, Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man which has any suit or cause might come to me...

1 Kings 12:6-11 And king Rehoboam consulted with the old men, that stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, and said...

2 Kings 21:1-3 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem...

Ecclesiastes 2:19 And who knows whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labor wherein I have labored...

Jeremiah 22:15-17 Shall you reign, because you close yourself in cedar? did not your father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice...

but turned

Exodus 18:21 Moreover you shall provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness...

Deuteronomy 16:19 You shall not wrest judgment; you shall not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift does blind the eyes of the wise...

Psalm 15:5 He that puts not out his money to usury, nor takes reward against the innocent. He that does these things shall never be moved.

Psalm 26:10 In whose hands is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes.

Isaiah 33:15 He that walks righteously, and speaks uprightly; he that despises the gain of oppressions, that shakes his hands from holding of bribes...

1 Timothy 3:3 Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;

1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith...