Ecclesiastes 7:7 {8}
Good News Translation
You may be wise, but if you cheat someone, you are acting like a fool. If you take a bribe, you ruin your character.

New Revised Standard Version
Surely oppression makes the wise foolish, and a bribe corrupts the heart.

Contemporary English Version
Corruption makes fools of sensible people, and bribes can ruin you.

New American Bible
Extortion can make a fool out of the wise, and a bribe corrupts the heart.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Oppression troubleth the wise, and shall destroy the strength of his heart.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Oppression troubleth the wise, and shall destroy the strength of his heart.

oppression

Deuteronomy 28:33,34,65 May a people which thou knowest not, eat the fruits of thy land, and all thy labours: and mayst thou always suffer oppression, and be crushed at all times. . . .

a gift

Exodus 23:8 Neither shalt thou take bribes, which even blind the wise, and pervert the words of the just.

Deuteronomy 16:19 And not go aside to either part. Thou shalt not accept person nor gifts: for gifts blind the eyes of the wise, and change the words of the just.

1 Samuel 8:3 And his sons walked not in his ways: but they turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.

1 Samuel 12:3 Speak of me before the Lord, and before his anointed, whether I have taken any man's ox, or ass: if I have wronged any man, if I have oppressed any man, if I have taken a bribe at any man's hand: and I will despise it this day, and will restore it to you.

Proverbs 17:23 The wicked man taketh gifts out of the bosom, that he may pervert the paths of judgment.

Isaiah 1:23 Thy princes are faithless, companions of thieves: they all love bribes, they run after rewards. They judge not for the fatherless: and the widow's cause cometh not in to them.

Isaiah 33:15 He that walketh in justices, and speaketh truth, that casteth away avarice by oppression, and shaketh his hands from all bribes, that stoppeth his ears lest he hear blood, and shutteth his eyes that he may see no evil.

Context
The Value of Wisdom
6For as the crackling of thorns burning under a pot, so is the laughter of a fool: now this also is vanity. 7Oppression troubleth the wise, and shall destroy the strength of his heart.8Better is the end of a speech than the beginning. Better is the patient man than the presumptuous.…
Cross References
Exodus 23:8
Neither shalt thou take bribes, which even blind the wise, and pervert the words of the just.

Deuteronomy 16:19
And not go aside to either part. Thou shalt not accept person nor gifts: for gifts blind the eyes of the wise, and change the words of the just.

Proverbs 17:8
The expectation of him that expecteth is a most acceptable jewel: whithersoever he turneth himself, he understandeth wisely.

Proverbs 17:23
The wicked man taketh gifts out of the bosom, that he may pervert the paths of judgment.

Ecclesiastes 4:1
I turned myself to other things, and I saw the oppressions that are done under the sun, and the tears of the innocent, and they had no comforter; and they were not able to resist their violence, being destitute of help from any.

Ecclesiastes 5:8
If thou shalt see the oppressions of the poor, and violent judgments, and justice perverted in the province, wonder not at this matter: for he that is high hath another higher, and there are others still higher than these:

Ecclesiastes 8:9
All these things I have considered, and applied my heart to all the works that are done under the sun. Sometimes one man ruleth over another to his own hurt.

Ecclesiastes 7:6
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