This saying criticizes corrupt judges, as does 17.23.

“It is not good to be partial to a wicked man”: “A wicked man” in this context refers to “a guilty person.” “Be partial to” is literally “lift up the face of” and means to be biased or to favor one person or group more than the other. See Good News Translation “to favor the guilty.” In some languages this thought is expressed, for example, “It is not right for a judge to give his hand to the guilty person.”

“Or to deprive a righteous man of justice”: “Deprive” renders a verb meaning to turn aside or to thrust away. “Deprive . . . of justice” means to refuse to do the right and fair thing. “A righteous man” means here “innocent person,” in contrast to the guilty person in line 1. There are two possible ways of linking the two lines of this saying. On the one hand, both lines may refer to the one action or court case; so Bible en français courant translates this saying “It is not good to take the part of the guilty while refusing to do justice to the innocent.” Good News Translation also follows this approach. On the other hand, the two lines may refer to two different (wrong) actions or habits. The link word “or” in Revised Standard Version, New International Version, Scott, and others gives this sense. One translation that expresses clearly the verse as two possible actions says: “In the court it is not straight for the judge to side with a person who has broken the law. And it is also no good [for him] to go against a person who has done right, to prevent him getting what he has a right to get.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .