And they said,.... One in the name of the rest, or they all cried out as one man:
thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us; had done them no wrong, neither privately nor publicly, by fraud or by force:
neither hast thou taken ought of any man's hand; as a gift, present, or bribe, to fit your his cause. Some would infer hence that be took nothing of them for his support and maintenance, and that he lived upon his own substance; but that is not likely or reasonable; it was but just that they should support him and his family suitably to his character as a judge, whose whole life was spent in their service.