Bible Strands
Exodus 20:15
You shall not steal.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God addresses the assembled Israelites at Sinai, delivering the Decalogue as the governing covenant for the community. This is the ninth commandment, bracketed by prohibitions against adultery and false witness.
The words — תִגְנֹב (tiggēnōb, H1589) is the Qal imperfect 2nd masculine singular of גנב (ganaḇ), a bare "you shall steal" with no object specified and no exception carved out. The negation לֹא (lōʾ) is the standard prohibition form, making the sentence an absolute ban rather than a conditional one.
The thread — Leviticus 19:11 pairs the command with prohibitions against lying and deceiving, binding theft to broader dishonesty. Romans 13:9 subsumes it under the law of love, and Ephesians 4:28 reframes it positively: stop stealing, work instead.
Why it lands — The verse names no object, no circumstance, no minimum amount; it simply bars the act of taking what is another's. It asks the reader to treat another person's property as a boundary, not a resource to be tested.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Thou shalt not steal.
Cross-references
- Romans 13:9 The commandments “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and any other commandments, are summed up in this one decree: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
- Ephesians 4:28 He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing good with his own hands, that he may have something to share with the one in need.
- Leviticus 19:11 You must not steal. You must not lie or deceive one another.
- Leviticus 19:13 You must not defraud your neighbor or rob him. You must not withhold until morning the wages due a hired hand.
- Matthew 19:18 “Which ones?” the man asked. Jesus answered, “‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness,
- 1 Corinthians 6:10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.
- Leviticus 6:1 And the LORD said to Moses,
- Proverbs 1:13 We will find all manner of precious goods; we will fill our houses with plunder.
- Leviticus 19:35 You must not use dishonest measures of length, weight, or volume.
- Deuteronomy 24:7 If a man is caught kidnapping one of his Israelite brothers, whether he treats him as a slave or sells him, the kidnapper must die. So you must purge the evil from among you.