What Does Exodus 20:15 Mean in the King James?
Thou shalt not steal.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew root behind “steal” also describes a hidden departure and the stealing of a heart, so the command reaches beyond objects to concealed taking.
THE MEANING
This boundary protects what belongs to another from being quietly made your own. The root also appears when a departure is concealed or a heart is taken, showing how secrecy can be part of the taking. The command speaks wherever something is appropriated without the other person’s knowledge.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a taking becomes harmless if no one sees it: concealment does not make what belongs to another yours.
THE ROOT
תִּגְנֹב
tignov
GROWS FROM
גנב
g-n-b
to steal or take secretly
The root’s reach includes more than removing an object: it can describe a hidden departure or taking someone’s heart. English “steal” can sound limited to property, while the Hebrew root also brings concealment and withheld knowledge into view.
ALSO GROWS
gannab: thief
גַּנָּב
The person who steals bears the same root, tying the concealed act to the one who carries it out.
genevah: theft
גְּנֵבָה
This noun names the act itself, showing the command’s verb belongs to a wider family centered on taking secretly.
THE PATTERN
Hidden taking fractures shared trust, and scripture answers it with restoration and openhanded provision.
If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it; he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.Whoso robbeth his father or his mother, and saith, It is no transgression; the same is the companion of a destroyer.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.THE THREAD
And Jacob stole away unawares to Laban the Syrian, in that he told him not that he fled.The verb behind “stole away” comes from the same גנב (ganav, “steal”) root as Exodus 20:15. In this verse, the root describes a departure concealed from someone; it can also appear in the phrase “steal the heart,” opening the command’s reach beyond objects to hidden taking.
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