Proverbs 17:23 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

A wicked man Whether judge or witness; taketh a gift out of the bosom In secret, as this phrase is expounded Proverbs 21:14, being privily conveyed from the bosom of the giver into his own bosom; to pervert the ways of judgment To give or procure an unjust sentence. Bishop Patrick's paraphrase of the verse is, “No man would willingly be known to be so wicked as to be bribed to do injustice, but there are too many that will suffer themselves to be secretly corrupted by presents, to give counsel or judgment contrary to the course of law and equity.”