Exodus 23:8 "And you shall take no bribe"

Occasionally, we hear about people receiving large sums of money as bribes. Whenever a person does a nice thing for a judge so that he will and say good things about him, the Torah considers it bribery.

The Talmud relates that once a judge's tenant brought him the rent a few days early and the judge refused to hear the case because he considered that a bribe.

The Torah gives a judge this special commandment because he is charged with declaring justice.

A judge is forbidden to accept any form of bribery, even if the bribe is offered from an innocent man and the judgment is truthful and correct.