"... The presented considerations show in an exemplary way that the book of Deuteronomy does not simply belong to a continuum of sapiential tradi­tion. older concepts of “wisdom” are distinctively transformed in Deuteronomy 1:13, 15 and in Deuteronomy 16:19–20, but in both cases in a different way. In Deuteronomy 16:19–20, the transformation substantially relativizes any claim of Israel's judges to be “wise.” There are indications that this claim was related to the self-perception of the Deuteronomistic scribes. if this holds true, the phrase “the bribe blinds the eyes of the wise” can be read as a kind of scribal self-critique. At the same time, the Deuteronomistic editing of Deuteronomy, of which both Deuteronomy 1:9–18 and Deuteronomy 16:19–20 are part, draws on sapiential tradition on more than one occasion. The judicial instruction of Deuteronomy 1:17a resumes a tradition of condemning partiality in judgment that is represented by Proverbs 24:23. The commandment of Deuteronomy 16:20 reformulates the admonition of Proverbs 21:21. The proverbial saying, “the bribe blinds the eyes of the wise, and twists the cases of the righteous,” is, through Exodus 23:8b, indirectly dependent on a sapiential tradition that obviously influenced this section of the covenant code ..."