THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT.
EXODUS XX, 15: _Thou shalt not steal._
1. THEFT FORBIDDEN.
EX. XX, 15. Thou shalt not steal.
LEV. XIX, 11. Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie
one to another.
DEUT. V, 19. Neither shalt thou steal.
ROM. XIII, 9. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not
kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou
shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly
comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself.
EPH. IV, 28. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him
labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may
have to give to him that needeth.
1 PETER IV, 15. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a
thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters.
2. THREATENINGS AGAINST THEFT.
ZECH. V, 4. I will bring it forth, saith the Lord of hosts, and it
shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him
that sweareth falsely by my name: and it shall remain in the midst of
his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones
thereof.
1 COR. VI, 10. Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers,
nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
HOSEA IV, 2. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and
committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.
3. Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein
shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of
heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.
EX. XXI, 16. And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be
found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
EX. XXII, 1. If a man steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell
it; he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.
JOSHUA VII, 11. Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my
covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the
accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they
have put it even among their own stuff.
12. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their
enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they
were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy
the accursed from among you.
PROV. XXIX, 24. Whoso is partner with a thief hateth his own soul: he
heareth cursing, and bewrayeth it not.
3. THREATENINGS AGAINST ROBBERY.
ISAIAH LXI, 8. For I the Lord love judgment, I hate robbery for
burnt-offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make
an everlasting covenant with them.
LEV. XIX, 13. Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him:
the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night
until the morning.
PROV. XXI, 7. The robbery of the wicked shall destroy them; because
they refuse to do judgment.
EZEK. XXII, 29. The people of the land have used oppression, and
exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have
oppressed the stranger wrongfully.
AMOS III, 10. I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of
Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away
your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto
your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.
11. I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and
Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet
have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.
NAHUM III, 1. Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and
robbery; the prey departeth not.
4. FRAUD AND CHEATING FORBIDDEN.
LEV. XIX, 11. Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie
one to another.
PROV. XX, 14. It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he
is gone his way, then he boasteth.
LEV. XIX, 35. Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard,
in weight, or in measure.
36. Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall
ye have: I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of
Egypt.
LEV. XXV, 14. And if thou sell aught unto thy neighbor, or buyest
aught of thy neighbor's hand, ye shall not oppress one another.
DEUT. XXV, 13. Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great
and a small:
14. Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a
small:
15. But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just
measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land
which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
16. For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an
abomination unto the Lord thy God.
PROV. XI, 1. A false balance is abomination to the Lord: but a just
weight is his delight.
1 THESS. IV, 6. That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any
matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such as we also
have forewarned you and testified.
PROV. XVI, 11. A just weight and balance are the Lord's: all the
weights of the bag are his work.
HOSEA XII, 7. He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his
hand: he loveth to oppress.
8. And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out
substance: in all my labors they shall find none iniquity in me that
were sin.
5. PRECEPTS CONCERNING LANDED PROPERTY.
DEUT. XIX, 14. Thou shalt not remove thy neighbor's landmark, which
they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt
inherit in the land that the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it.
DEUT. XXVII, 17. Which may go out before them, and which may go in
before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in;
that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no
shepherd.
EX. XXII, 5. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and
Aaron made proclamation, and said, To-morrow is a feast to the Lord.
6. And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt-offerings,
and brought peace-offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to
drink, and rose up to play.
JOB XXIV, 2. Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away
flocks, and feed thereof.
3. They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow's ox
for a pledge.
PROV. XXII, 28. Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers
have set.
PROV. XXIII, 10. Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the
fields of the fatherless:
11. For their Redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee.
6. PRECEPTS _Concerning Things Found, Loaned, or Intrusted to Others_.
LEV. VI, 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
2. If a soul sin, and commit a trespass against the Lord, and lie unto
his neighbor in that which was delivered him to keep, or in
fellowship, or in a thing taken away by violence, or hath deceived his
neighbor;
3. Or have found that which was lost, and lieth concerning it, and
sweareth falsely; in any of all these that a man doeth, sinning
therein:
4. Then it shall be, because he hath sinned, and is guilty, that he
shall restore that which he took violently away, or the thing which he
hath deceitfully gotten, or that which was delivered him to keep, or
the lost thing which he found,
5. Or all that about which he hath sworn falsely; he shall even
restore it in the principal, and shall add the fifth part more
thereto, and give it unto him to whom it appertaineth, in the day of
his trespass-offering.
6. And he shall bring his trespass-offering unto the Lord, a ram
without blemish out of the flock, with thy estimation, for a
trespass-offering, unto the priest.
LEV. XXIV, 18. And he that killeth a beast shall make it good; beast
for beast.
EX. XXII, 9. For all manner of trespass, whether it be for ox, for
ass, for sheep, for raiment, or for any manner of lost thing, which
another challengeth to be his, the cause of both parties shall come
before the judges; and whom the judges shall condemn, he shall pay
double unto his neighbor.
10. If a man deliver unto his neighbor an ass, or an ox, or a sheep,
or any beast, to keep; and it die, or be hurt, or driven away, no man
seeing it:
11. Then shall an oath of the Lord be between them both, that he hath
not put his hand unto his neighbor's goods; and the owner of it shall
accept thereof, and he shall not make it good.
12. And if it be stolen from him, he shall make restitution unto the
owner thereof.
13. If it be torn in pieces, then let him bring it for witness, and he
shall not make good that which was torn.
14. And if a man borrow aught of his neighbor, and it be hurt, or die,
the owner thereof being not with it, he shall surely make it good.
15. But if the owner thereof be with it, he shall not make it good: if
it be a hired thing, it came for his hire.
7. RESTITUTION TO BE MADE TO THE INJURED.
LEV. VI, 5. Or all that about which he hath sworn falsely; he shall
even restore it in the principal, and shall add the fifth part more
thereto, and give it unto him to whom it appertaineth, in the day of
his trespass-offering.
1 SAM. XII, 3. Behold, here I am: witness against me before the Lord,
and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I
taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose
hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I
will restore it you.
LUKE XIX, 8. I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.
Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the
earth?
PSALM XXXVII, 21. The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the
righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth.
GEN. XLIII, 12. And take double money in your hand; and the money that
was brought again in the mouth of your sacks, carry it again in your
hand; peradventure it was an oversight.
GEN. XLIV, 8. Behold, the money, which we found in our sacks' mouths,
we brought again unto thee out of the land of Canaan: how then should
we steal out of thy lord's house silver or gold?
8. THREATENINGS AGAINST OPPRESSORS.
JER. XVII, 11. As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them
not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in
the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.
PROV. XX, 21. An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning;
but the end thereof shall not be blessed.
PROV. XII, 16. A fool's wrath is presently known: but a prudent man
covereth shame.
PROV. XXII, 22. Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress
the afflicted in the gate:
23. For the Lord will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those
that spoiled them.
PROV. XXVIII, 3. A poor man that oppresseth the poor is like a
sweeping rain which leaveth no food.
PROV. XXVIII, 8. He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his
substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor.
PROV. XXVIII, 22. He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and
considereth not that poverty shall come upon him.
ISAIAH V, 8. Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to
field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the
midst of the earth!
MICAH II, 1. Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon
their beds! when the morning is light, they practice it, because it is
in the power of their hand.
2. And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and
take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and
his heritage.