And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.

and his sons have not walked in his ways, and turn aside after the dishonest gain, and take a bribe, and turn aside judgment.

And his sons did not go in his ways, but moved by the love of money took rewards, and were not upright in judging.

But his sons did not walk in his ways. Instead, they turned aside, pursuing avarice. And they accepted bribes, and they perverted judgment.

His sons walked not in his ways - Their iniquity is pointed out in three words:
1. They turned aside after lucre; the original (בצע batsa) signifies to cut, clip, break off; and therefore Mr. Parkhurst thinks that it means nearly the same with our clipping of coin. It however expresses here the idea of avarice, of getting money by hook or by crook. The Targum says, "They looked after ממון דשקר mamon dishkar, the mammon of unrighteousness;" of which they did not make unto themselves friends but enemies; see the note on Matthew 6:24.
2. They took bribes; שחד shochad, gifts or presents, to blind their eyes.
3. They perverted judgment - they turned judgment aside; they put it out of its regular path; they sold it to the highest bidder: thus the wicked rich man had his cause, and the poor man was oppressed and deprived of his right.
This was the custom in our own country before Magna Charta was obtained; he that would speed in the king's court must bribe all the officers, and fee both the king and queen! I have found in our ancient records the most barefaced and shameful examples of this kind; but it was totally abolished, invito rege, by that provision in the above charter which states, Nulli vendemus, nulli negabimvs ant differemus rectum aut judicium; "To no man will we sell, to no man will we deny or defer, justice and right." It was customary in those inauspicious times, for judgment to be delayed in banco regis, in the king's court, as long as there was any hope that more money would be paid in order to bring it to issue. And there were cases, where the king did not like the party, in which he denied justice and judgment entirely! Magna Charta brought them to book, and brought the subject to his right.
Of those times it might well be said, as Homer did, Iliad xvi., ver. 387.
Οἱ βιῃ αγορη σκολιας κρινωσι θεμιστας,
Εκ δε δικην ελασωσι, θεων οπιν ουκ αλεγοντες.
"When guilty mortals break the eternal laws,
Or judges, bribed, betray the righteous cause."
"When the laws are perverted by force; when justice is expelled from her seat; when judges are swayed from the right, regardless of the vengeance of Heaven." Or, in other words, these were times in which the streams of justice were poisoned in their source, and judges neither feared God nor regarded man.

And his sons walked not in his ways,.... The meaning of which is not that they did not go the circuit he did, which is too low a sense of the words some Jewish writers give; but they did not walk in the fear of God, in the paths of religion and righteousness, truth and holiness; they neither served God, nor did justice to men, as Samuel had done:
but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment; indulged to covetousness, sought to get riches at any rate, took bribes, which blind the eyes of judges; and so passed wrong judgment, and gave the cause to those that gave the largest gifts, right or wrong.

The sons, however, did not walk in the ways of their father, but set their hearts upon gain, took bribes, and perverted justice, in opposition to the command of God (see Exodus 23:6, Exodus 23:8; Deuteronomy 16:19).

Took bribes - Opportunity and temptation discovered that corruption in them which 'till now was hid from their father. It has often been the grief of holy men, that their children did not tread in their steps. So far from it, that the sons of eminently good men, have been often eminently wicked.