Took bribes, and perverted judgment. — This sin, at all times a fatally common one in the East, was especially denounced in the Law. (See Exodus 23:6-8; Deuteronomy 16:19.) It is strange that the same ills that ruined Eli’s house, owing to the evil conduct of his children, now threatened Samuel. The prophet-judge, however, acted differently to the high priestly judge. The sons of Samuel were evidently, through their father’s action in procuring the election of Saul, quickly deposed from their authority. The punishment seems to have been successful in correcting the corrupt tendencies of these men, for we hear in after days of the high position occupied at the court of David by the distinguished descendants of the noble and disinterested prophet. (See the notices in 1 Chronicles 6:33; 1 Chronicles 25:4-5, respecting Heman, the grandson of Samuel, the king’s seer, who was chief of the choir of the Psalmist-king in the house of God.)
Related Commentaries of 1 Samuel 8:3
1 Samuel 8:3
3 And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.