Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

This subject is mentioned at other, earlier places in the Old Testament. 

As the people of Israel were preparing to enter Canaan following the exodus from Egypt and their forty years of wandering in the wilderness, they were planning to divide up the land among the various tribes and families, and designate the boundaries of each separate tract of land by the use of boundary stones or markers (which were not permanent fixtures, but could be moved).

Therefore, in Deuteronomy 19:14 (prior to Israel crossing the Jordan and entering Canaan), Moses told the people that, in coming times, they were to always respect these markers, no matter how long they would have been in place (that is, regardless of how "ancient" they might become), and not to attempt to move them in order to encroach upon another's property, or to enlarge their own territorial holding at the expense of another person or tribe. This would be the equivalent in modern times of forging, altering, destroying, or concealing the title-deeds of an estate, which is still regarded as a crime. It would also be a violation of the commandment against covetousness (Exodus 20:17). 

It was considered such a serious matter that, in Deuteronomy 27:12-26, it was included in the offenses against which Moses instructed the Israelites to pronounce a curse after entering Canaan, which the Israelites subsequently did (Joshua 8:33-34).

This action was still forbidden hundreds of years later at the time of Solomon, when he restated and stressed the prohibition against it in multiple verses as part of Proverbs (Proverbs 15:25 and Proverbs 23:10, in addition to Proverbs 22:28).

February 02 2016 • 2 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report