Exodus 20:15 Meaning and Explanation
“Thou shalt not steal.”
King James Version (KJV)
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Read Full Chapter →God guards what belongs to our neighbor, so that trust can hold a community together.
The Context of Exodus 20:15
The eighth of the Ten Commandments, given at Mount Sinai. Like several of its companions it is brief and plain, a single clear boundary that protects the goods, the labor, and the dignity of the people around us.
What Does Exodus 20:15 Mean?
The command is short enough for a child to memorize, and it draws a clear line around what belongs to someone else. To steal is to take by stealth or force what another has worked for and rightly owns. Behind the rule is a tender care for the neighbor, whose property, wages, and provision God means to protect. A community can only flourish where people can trust one another, where a person's goods are safe and their labor honored. This brief line builds that trust into the foundation of a whole society, guarding the weak from those who would simply take.
Paul shows what this command becomes once grace takes hold of a person, turning the hand that grasped into a hand that gives: let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labour, that he may have to give to him that needeth (Ephesians 4:28). Jesus came among us with nothing and gave everything, even His life, enriching us by His own poverty. In Him our hearts are reshaped from taking toward open-handed love.
Exodus 20:15 in the Original Language
ganav (גָּנַב), 'steal' -- to take secretly or by deceit what belongs to another; the root behind "thief."
Where Exodus 20:15 Echoes in Scripture
Paul takes this command and turns it toward generosity: let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth (Ephesians 4:28). The negative command opens into a positive calling.
How to Apply Exodus 20:15 Today
This command asks us to honor what belongs to others, whether their goods, their wages, or their work, so that trust can hold our life together. In Christ the grasping hand is remade into a giving one. The deepest answer to stealing is the open-handed generosity He works in us.