Deuteronomy 19:14

_THOU SHALT NOT REMOVE THY NEIGHBOUR'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._ Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's landmark. The state of Palestine in regard to enclosures is very much the same now as it has always been. Though gardens and vineyards are surrounded by dry stone walls or hedges of prickly-pear, the boundaries of arable fields are marked by nothing but by a little trench, a small cairn, or a single erect stone placed at certain intervals. It is manifest that a dishonest person could easily fill the gutter with earth, or remove these stones a few feet, without much risk of detection, and enlarge his own field by a stealthy encroachment on his neighbour's. This law, then, was made to prevent such trespasses in the land which the Israelites were about to occupy; be...

A kind of theft is here condemned which is severely punished by the laws of Rome; (105) for that every one’s property may be secure, it is necessary that the land-marks set up for the division of fields should remain untouched, as if they were sacred. He who fraudulently removes a landmark is already convicted by this very act, because he disturbs the lawful owner in his quiet possession of the land; (106) whilst he who advances further the boundaries of his own land to his neighbor’s loss, doubles the crime by the deceptive concealment of his theft. Whence also we gather that not only are those thieves, who actually carry away their neighbor’s property, who take his money out of his chest, or who pillage his cellars and granaries, but also those who unjustly possess themselves of his land....

14 Direction is given to fix landmarks in Canaan. It is the will of God that every one should know his own; and that means should be used to hinder the doing and suffering of wrong. This, without doubt, is a moral precept, and still binding. Let every man be content with his own lot, and be just to his neighbours in all things....

Verse Deuteronomy 19:14. _THOU SHALT NOT REMOVE THY NEIGHBOUR'S LANDMARK_] Before the extensive use of fences, landed property was marked out by _stones_ or _posts_, set up so as to ascertain the divisions of family estates. It was easy to remove one of these landmarks, and set it in a different place; and thus the dishonest man enlarged his own estate by contracting that of his neighbour. The _termini_ or landmarks among the Romans were held very sacred, and were at last deified. To these _termini_ Numa Pompillus commanded offerings of broth, cakes, and firstfruits, to be made. And Ovid informs us that it was customary to sacrifice a _lamb_ to them, and sprinkle them with its blood: - _Spargitur et caeso communis terminus agno_. FAST. lib. ii., ver

As a man’s life is to be held sacred, so are his means of livelihood; and in this connection a prohibition is inserted against removing a neighbor’s landmark: compare the marginal references....

EXPOSITION LAWS CONCERNING CITIES OF REFUGE. LANDMARKS NOT TO BE REMOVED. LAWS CONCERNING WITNESSES. DEUTERONOMY 19:1 Moses had before this enunciated the law concerning cities of refuge for manslayers, and had already pointed out the cities on the east of the Jordan that were to be set apart for this (Numbers 35:11, etc.; Deuteronomy 4:41, etc.), he here repeats the law with special reference to the appointment of such cities "in the midst of the

THOU SHALT NOT REMOVE THY NEIGHBOUR'S LANDMARK,.... By which one man's land is distinguished from another; for so to do is to injure a man's property, and alienate his lands to the use of another, which must be a very great evil, and render those that do it obnoxious to a curse, Deuteronomy 27:17 WHICH THEY OF OLD HAVE SET IN THINE INHERITANCE, WHICH THOU SHALL INHERIT IN THE LAND THAT THE LORD THY GOD GIVETH THEE TO POSSESS IT; the land of Canaan: this is thought to refer to the bounds and limits set in the land by Eleazar and Joshua, and those concerned with them at the division of it; when not only the tribes were bounded; and distinguished by certain marks, but every man's estate, and the possession of every family in every tribe which though not as yet done when this law was made, yet, as it respects future times, might be said to be done of old, whenever th

DEUTERONOMY 19:14 TO DEUTERONOMY 25:19. Consists of miscellaneous laws having no apparent connexion with D's great law of the centralisation of worship. They deal with crime, war, marriage, family relations, and other matters. This part of Dt. is perhaps made up of additions appended from time to time to the original code, and for that reason has double versions of the same laws (_cf. Deuteronomy 20:7_ and Deuteronomy 24:5) and double references to the same thing (_cf_. Deuteronomy 20:1 and...

NOT REMOVE. Compare Deuteronomy 27:17; Hosea 5:10; Proverbs 22:28. LANDMARK. Not to be removed: but "'stumbling-blocks' to be taken out of the way". Leviticus 19:14.Isaiah 57:14.Romans 14:13....

Against Removing Boundary Stones In the Sg. address, but as in Deuteronomy 19:4 f., Deuteronomy 19:11 and Deuteronomy 15:2, _q.v._, with _neighbour_instead of _brother_, usual in Sg. passages; and followed by a deuteronomic formula. It is significant that the formula is not only separable from the law proper (as in the previous law) but contradicts it. For while the law betrays its date as subsequent to Israel's settlement in the land and with this agree the facts that there is no parallel in the earlier codes and that protests against removing boundary-stones appear in the prophets and later books (Isaiah 5:8