This verse opens Collection IV and the three-verse saying on corrupt courts, Proverbs 24:23–25.
Quick answer
A new gathering of sayings begins, and its first word is about courts: deciding a case by whose face you are looking at is not good.
Read the whole unit
The saying runs three verses: partiality named (v. 23), the false acquittal cursed by whole nations (v. 24), and the honest rebuke blessed (v. 25). Together they describe a courtroom from the judge's seat and price the two directions it can go.
Read the whole unit
A new collection starts here. "These things also belong to the wise" is an editorial header, one of several places where the book of Proverbs shows its own seams and tells the reader that what follows was gathered from somewhere else. What follows immediately is a three-verse saying about corrupt courts, which is a revealing choice of opening.
The subject is הַכֵּר־פָּנִים, footnoted by the NKJV as literally recognize faces: deciding a case by who is standing in front of you. The unit moves from the principle (v. 23) to the verdict that violates it (v. 24) to the alternative and its reward (v. 25). What makes it sting is the scale of the reaction in verse 24. Peoples curse and nations abhor the judge who acquits the guilty, which is a global response to a local courtroom, and it says that a rigged verdict is felt as an injury by everyone who hears about it. The unit belongs to the mishpat thread that runs from 13:23 through chapters 21 and 22, and its central verse is the near-twin of 17:15.
What this verse contributes
Two things, and the first is structural. This verse is a header, evidence inside Scripture that the book was compiled rather than dictated in one sitting, which is worth noticing rather than smoothing over. Then the principle itself, stated with the understatement this literature uses for serious things: not good. The Hebrew idiom behind "show partiality" is to recognize faces, which is exactly what a judge must not do, and the phrase makes the corruption concrete. Nothing is said yet about bribes. Simply knowing who is in front of you is enough to bend a verdict.
Related: Proverbs 18:5 · Proverbs 28:21 · Deuteronomy 1:17
New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. Full copyright information. Scripture provided by API.Bible.
Go Deeper
If this verse has been used to put weight on you that it was never carrying, ask about it directly.