Proverbs - 28:21



21 To show partiality is not good; yet a man will do wrong for a piece of bread.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Proverbs 28:21.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
To have respect of persons is not good: for for a piece of bread that man will transgress.
To have respect of persons is not good; Neither that a man should transgress for a piece of bread.
He that hath respect to a person in judgment, doth not well: such a man even for a morsel of bread forsaketh the truth.
To discern faces is not good, And for a piece of bread doth a man transgress.
It is not good to have respect for a man's position: for a man will do wrong for a bit of bread.
To have respect of persons is not good; For a man will transgress for a piece of bread.
Whoever shows favoritism in judgment does not do well; even if it is for a morsel of bread, he forsakes the truth.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

Dishonest partiality leads men who have enslaved themselves to it to transgress, even when the inducement is altogether disproportionate. A "piece of bread" was proverbial at all times as the most extreme point of poverty (compare the marginal reference).

To have respect of persons [is] not good: for for a piece of (k) bread [that] man will transgress.
(k) He will be abused for nothing.

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 stick at nothing, and do it for anything; as Cato used to say of M. Coelius the tribune,
"that he might be hired, for a morsel of bread, to speak or hold his peace;''
see Ezekiel 13:19.

Judgment is perverted, when any thing but pure right is considered.

respect of persons-- (Proverbs 24:23). Such are led to evil by the slightest motive.

With a proverb, in the first half of which is repeated the beginning of the second appendix, Proverbs 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 (1-Samuel 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 compares A Gellius' Noct. Att. i. 15, where Cato says of the Tribune Coelius: Frusto panis conduci potest vel ut taceat vel ut loquatur.

For - When a man hath once accustomed himself to take bribes, a very small advantage will make him sell justice.

*More commentary available at chapter level.


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