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1Sa_12:3 Behold, here I [am]: witness against me before the LORD, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received [any] bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you.
Ver. 3. Whose ox have I taken?] So Moses purgeth himself, {Num_16:15} that he had not taken a hoof of any one: and St Paul to the same purpose in many places; as Act_20:33 1Co_9:18, &c.: and Greg. Nazianzen, Orat. 32. Quid populure hunc per avaritiam circumvenimus? nunquid privatis utilitatibus consuluimus? &c. Whom have we circumvented by covetousness? and wherein have we sought our own ends? &c. So Melancthon; George, prince of Anhalt; the late victorious Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden; "I protest before God," said he, in a speech to his German plunderers, "that I have not by all this war enriched myself so far as a pair of boots comes to. Yea, I had rather ride without boots than in the least degree enrich myself by the damage of poor people."
Or whom have I defrauded?] Quem calumniatus sum? Vatab. - Compare Luk_19:8. Whom have I deprived of his wealth by forged cavillation?
Whom have I oppressed?] Contrivi, pulsavi. Whom have I beaten, bruised, shattered, or any way violenced?
Or of whose hand have I received any bribe?] Munus expiatorium. Olim didici, quid sint munera, saith one: I know well the danger of meddling with bribes or ransoms, as they are here called. For, like the fish torpedo, they will infect and benumb the hand that touches them. {a}
To blind mine eyes therewith.] "A gift blindeth the eyes of the wise," {Deu_16:19} transformeth him into a very walking idol, that hath eyes and seeth not, ears that hear not: only he hath hands to hold bribes. {Isa_33:15}
{a} Plin.