2 Samuel 15:4

It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it honorable to seek one’s own honor.

Jesus answered them, “Most certainly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is the bondservant of sin.

You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality. You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous.

I wish that this people were under my hand! Then I would remove Abimelech.” He said to Abimelech, “Increase your army and come out!”

I will walk in liberty, for I have sought your precepts.

For it isn’t he who commends himself who is approved, but whom the Lord commends.

For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

he who doesn’t lend out his money for usury, nor take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be shaken.

Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?

I have become foolish in boasting. You compelled me, for I ought to have been commended by you, for I am in no way inferior to the very best apostles, though I am nothing.

For you, brothers, were called for freedom. Only don’t use your freedom for gain to the flesh, but through love be servants to one another.

Moreover you shall provide out of all the people able men which fear God: men of truth, hating unjust gain; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.

“You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the words of the righteous.

Now, behold, the king walks before you. I am old and gray-headed. Behold, my sons are with you. I have walked before you from my youth to this day.

For I know how many your offenses, and how great are your sins— you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn away the needy in the courts.

Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money: yet they lean on Yahweh, and say, “Isn’t Yahweh among us? No disaster will come on us.”

“If I testify about myself, my witness is not valid.

For we are not bold to number or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves. But they themselves, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves with themselves, are without understanding.

If I must boast, I will boast of the things that concern my weakness.

This was because of the false brothers secretly brought in, who stole in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage,

Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, not lovers of good,

as free, and not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but as bondservants of God.

Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

The priest shall examine him; and behold, if the scab has spread on the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is leprosy.

His sons didn’t walk in his ways, but turned away after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice.

“When you saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us;’ when Yahweh your God was your king.

Samuel came to Saul; and Saul said to him, “You are blessed by Yahweh! I have performed the commandment of Yahweh.”

Samuel said, “Though you were little in your own sight, weren’t you made the head of the tribes of Israel? Yahweh anointed you king over Israel;

Now therefore what is under your hand? Please give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever is available.”

So the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold; and he said to them, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Look and behold your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”

The king of Israel answered, “Tell him, ‘Don’t let him who puts on his armor brag like he who takes it off.’ ”

He said, “Come with me, and see my zeal for Yahweh.” So they made him ride in his chariot.

Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, “Come, let’s look one another in the face.”

Now therefore, please give pledges to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them.

For the company of the godless will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of bribery.

For the wicked boasts of his heart’s cravings. He blesses the greedy and condemns Yahweh.

in whose hands is wickedness, their right hand is full of bribes.

Yahweh, my heart isn’t arrogant, nor my eyes lofty; nor do I concern myself with great matters, or things too wonderful for me.

There are some who pretend to be rich, yet have nothing. There are some who pretend to be poor, yet have great wealth.

It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor, than to divide the plunder with the proud.

A wicked man receives a bribe in secret, to pervert the ways of justice.

Many men claim to be men of unfailing love, but who can find a faithful man?

Plans are established by advice; by wise guidance you wage war!

Don’t exalt yourself in the presence of the king, or claim a place among great men;

Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.

Who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have rule over all of my labor in which I have labored, and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity.

Surely extortion makes the wise man foolish; and a bribe destroys the understanding.

Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley of those who are overcome with wine!

He who walks righteously and speaks blamelessly, he who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing to take a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking at evil—

Concerning the prophets: My heart within me is broken. All my bones shake. I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of Yahweh, and because of his holy words.

Their drink has become sour. They play the prostitute continually. Her rulers dearly love their shameful way.

But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My lord delays his coming,’ and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken,

For I see that you are in the poison of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity.”

Meanwhile, he also hoped that money would be given to him by Paul, that he might release him. Therefore also he sent for him more often and talked with him.

I find then the law that, to me, while I desire to do good, evil is present.

But be careful that by no means does this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to the weak.

For we are not commending ourselves to you again, but speak as giving you occasion of boasting on our behalf, that you may have something to answer those who boast in appearance, and not in heart.

For even they who receive circumcision don’t keep the law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised, that they may boast in your flesh.

But sexual immorality, and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be mentioned among you, as becomes saints;

not a drinker, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous;

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some have been led astray from the faith in their greed, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

and they may recover themselves out of the devil’s snare, having been taken captive by him to his will.

For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.

But these, as unreasoning creatures, born natural animals to be taken and destroyed, speaking evil in matters about which they are ignorant, will in their destroying surely be destroyed,

promising them liberty, while they themselves are bondservants of corruption; for a man is brought into bondage by whoever overcomes him.

For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in it and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

He who becomes the father of a fool grieves. The father of a fool has no joy.