Bible Strands
Leviticus 19:11
You must not steal. You must not lie or deceive one another.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Yahweh addresses the Israelites through Moses during the wilderness covenant, placing the command immediately after regulations to leave vineyard gleanings for the poor and foreigner. The directive establishes a boundary for communal conduct within the newly formed covenant community.
The words — תִּגְנֹבוּ (tig.nov) denotes the active act of stealing, while תְכַחֲשׁוּ (te.kha.chesh) and תְשַׁקְּרוּ (te.sha.ker) specify the parallel prohibitions against deception and false dealing with a fellow citizen. The text lists these three actions as parallel negative commands without adding qualifying conditions.
The thread — The prohibition against stealing appears in Exodus 20:15, while the rejection of deceit and lying recurs in Psalms 101:7 and Ephesians 4:25. These references trace the same ethical boundary from the Decalogue through wisdom literature to apostolic instruction.
Why it lands — The verse requires the cessation of theft and interpersonal deception within the covenant community. It demands concrete compliance with economic and verbal honesty before any theological application.
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
Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another.
Cross-references
- Exodus 20:15 You shall not steal.
- Psalms 101:7 No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house; no one who tells lies shall stand in my presence.
- Ephesians 4:25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one another.
- Colossians 3:9 Do not lie to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices,
- Zechariah 5:3 Then he told me, “This is the curse that is going out over the face of all the land, for according to one side of the scroll, every thief will be removed; and according to the other side, every perjurer will be removed.
- Romans 3:4 Certainly not! Let God be true and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that You may be proved right when You speak and victorious when You judge.”
- Leviticus 6:2 “If someone sins and acts unfaithfully against the LORD by deceiving his neighbor in regard to a deposit or security entrusted to him or stolen, or if he extorts his neighbor
- Deuteronomy 5:19 You shall not steal.
- Jeremiah 9:3 “They bend their tongues like bows; lies prevail over truth in the land. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not take Me into account,” declares the LORD.
- Zechariah 8:16 These are the things you must do: Speak truth to one another, render true and sound judgments in your gates,