Explore the profound teachings of the Bible on stealing, its consequences, repentance, and the power of God’s forgiveness. Unravel the wisdom within these Bible verses about stealing to understand richness beyond material wealth.

Consequences of Stealing

• Exodus 22:7 – “If anyone gives a neighbor silver or goods for safekeeping and they are stolen from the neighbor’s house, the thief, if caught, must pay back double.”
• Proverbs 6:30-31 – “People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving. Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold, though it costs him all the wealth of his house.”
• Leviticus 19:11 – “Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not deceive one another.”
• Jeremiah 7:9 – “Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known?”
• Zechariah 5:3-4 – “Then he said to me, ‘This is the curse that is going out over the whole land; for according to what it says on one side, every thief will be banished, and according to what it says on the other, everyone who swears falsely will be banished.'”
• 1 Corinthians 6:10 – “Nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
• Ephesians 4:28 – “Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.”

Repentance and Restoration from Stealing

• Leviticus 6:4 – “When you sin and realize your guilt in any of these matters and confess that you have sinned in that regard, you must return what you have stolen or taken by extortion, or what was entrusted to you, or the lost property you found.”
• Numbers 5:7 – “They must confess the sin they have committed. They must make full restitution for the wrong they have done, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the person they have wronged.”
• Nehemiah 5:11 – “Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the interest you are charging them—one percent of the money, grain, new wine and olive oil.”
• Acts 3:19 – “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.”

God’s Commands Against Stealing

• Exodus 20:15 – “You shall not steal.”
• Deuteronomy 5:19 – “You shall not steal.”
• Proverbs 29:24 – “Whoever is partner with a thief hates their own life; they hear the curse, but disclose nothing.”
• Malachi 3:8-9 – “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me.”
• Matthew 19:18 – “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony.'”
• Mark 10:19 – “You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”
• Romans 13:9 – “The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
• Ephesians 4:26-27 – “‘In your anger do not sin’: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.”
• Titus 2:9-10 – “Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.”

Wisdom and Foolishness in Stealing

• Proverbs 10:2 – “Ill-gotten treasures have no lasting value, but righteousness delivers from death.”
• Proverbs 21:6 – “A fortune made by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a deadly snare.”
• Ecclesiastes 8:8 – “No man has power over the wind to contain it; so no one has power over the day of their death. As no one is discharged in time of war, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.”
• Job 20:19 – “For he has oppressed the poor and left them destitute; he has seized houses he did not build.”
• Proverbs 30:9 – “Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.”
• Micah 2:1-2 – “Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it. They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them. They defraud a man of his home, a fellowman of his inheritance.”
• Proverbs 22:28 – “Do not move an ancient boundary stone set up by your ancestors.”
• Ecclesiastes 5:10 – “Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.”
• Proverbs 15:27 – “The greedy bring ruin to their households, but the one who hates bribes will live.”

Stealing and Community Impact

• Exodus 22:1 – “Whoever steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it must pay back five cattle for the ox and four sheep for the sheep.”
• Leviticus 6:2-3 – “If anyone sins and is unfaithful to the Lord by deceiving a neighbor about something entrusted to them or left in their care or about something stolen, or if they cheat their neighbor.”
• Proverbs 16:29 – “A violent person entices their neighbor and leads them down a path that is not good.”
• Ezekiel 18:10-13 – “Suppose he has a violent son, who sheds blood or does any of these other things (though the father has done none of them): He eats at the mountain shrines. He defiles his neighbor’s wife. He oppresses the poor and needy. He commits robbery. He does not return what he took in pledge. He looks to the idols. He does detestable things.”
• Habakkuk 2:6-8 – “Woe to him who piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion! How long must this go on? Will not your creditors suddenly arise? Will they not wake up and make you tremble? Then you will become their prey.”
• Jeremiah 22:13 – “Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice, making his own people work for nothing, not paying them for their labor.”
• Amos 3:10 – “They do not know how to do right,’ declares the Lord, ‘who store up in their fortresses what they have plundered and looted.’”
• Jeremiah 17:11 – “Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay are those who gain riches by unjust means. When their lives are halfway through, their riches will desert them, and in the end they will prove to be fools.”

Personal Integrity and Stealing

• Proverbs 11:1 – “The Lord detests dishonest scales, but accurate weights find favor with him.”
• Proverbs 20:17 – “Food gained by fraud tastes sweet, but one ends up with a mouth full of gravel.”
• Proverbs 20:23 – “The Lord detests differing weights, and dishonest scales do not please him.”
• Proverbs 28:24 – “Whoever robs their father or mother and says, ‘It’s not wrong,’ is partner to one who destroys.”
• Luke 12:15 – “Then he said to them, ‘Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.'”
• 1 Thessalonians 4:6 – “And in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before.”
• Matthew 6:19-20 – “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.”
• Proverbs 10:9 – “Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out.”
• Luke 8:17 – “For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.”

Divine Justice and Stealing

• Psalm 50:18 – “When you see a thief, you join with him; you throw in your lot with adulterers.”
• Isaiah 61:8 – “For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and wrongdoing. In my faithfulness I will reward my people and make an everlasting covenant with them.”
• Hosea 7:1 – “Whenever I would restore the fortunes of my people, whenever I would heal Israel, the sins of Ephraim are exposed and the crimes of Samaria revealed. They practice deceit, thieves break into houses, bandits rob in the streets.”
• Joel 3:3 – “They cast lots for my people and traded boys for prostitutes; they sold girls for wine to drink.”
• Malachi 3:5 – “So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the LORD Almighty.”
• Obadiah 1:5 – “If thieves came to you, if robbers in the night—Oh, what a disaster awaits you—would they not steal only as much as they wanted? If grape pickers came to you, would they not leave a few grapes?”
• Nahum 3:1 – “Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims!”
• Micah 6:10-11 – “Am I still to forget your ill-gotten treasures, you wicked house, and the short ephah, which is accursed? Shall I acquit someone with dishonest scales, with a bag of false weights?”
• Proverbs 21:15 – “When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.”

Reflection and Advice on Stealing

• Matthew 19:21 – “Jesus answered, ‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.'”
• Luke 12:33 – “Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.”
• Acts 20:35 – “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'”
• Proverbs 29:19 – “Servants cannot be corrected by mere words; though they understand, they will not respond.”
• James 4:2 – “You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.”
• Proverbs 13:11 – “Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow.”
• Proverbs 22:16 – “Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth, or gives to the rich, will only come to poverty.”

Stealing and Moral Teachings

• Luke 18:20 – “You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’”
• Romans 2:21 – “You, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?”
• James 5:4 – “Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.”
• 1 Peter 4:15 – “If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler.”
• Titus 2:10 – “And not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.”
• Proverbs 24:28 – “Do not testify against your neighbor without cause—would you use your lips to mislead?”
• Ezekiel 33:15 – “If they give back what they took in pledge for a loan, return what they have stolen, follow the decrees that give life, and do no evil, that person will surely live; they will not die.”

Recovery and Forgiveness from Stealing

• 2 Samuel 12:6 – “He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”
• Luke 19:8 – “Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.'”
• Proverbs 28:13 – “Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”
• Ezekiel 18:21 – “But if a wicked person turns away from all the sins they have committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, that person will surely live; they will not die.”
• Psalms 51:1-2 – “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.”
• Isaiah 55:7 – “Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.”

Societal Laws Against Stealing

• Leviticus 19:13 – “Do not defraud or rob your neighbor. Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight.”
• Deuteronomy 24:7 – “If someone is caught kidnapping a fellow Israelite and treating or selling them as a slave, the kidnapper must die. You must purge the evil from among you.”
• Deuteronomy 25:1-3 – “When people have a dispute, they are to take it to court and the judges will decide the case, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty. If the guilty person deserves to be beaten, the judge shall make them lie down and have them flogged in his presence with the number of lashes appropriate to the crime.”
• Proverbs 22:22 – “Do not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the needy in court.”
• Hosea 12:7 – “The merchant uses dishonest scales and loves to defraud.”
• Amos 8:4-6 – “Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, ‘When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?’—skimping on the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales.”
• Micah 6:11 – “Shall I acquit someone with dishonest scales, with a bag of false weights?”

Redemptive Stories Related to Stealing

• Genesis 44:1-34 – “Then he commanded the steward of his house, ‘Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s silver in the mouth of his sack. Then put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the youngest one’s sack, along with the silver for his grain.’ And he did as Joseph told him.”
• Joshua 7:1 – “But the Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devoted things; Achan son of Carmi, son of Zimri, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them. So the Lord’s anger burned against Israel.”
• 2 Kings 5:20-27 – “Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, ‘My master was too easy on Naaman, this Aramean, by not accepting from him what he brought. As surely as the Lord lives, I will run after him and get something from him.'”
• Jonah 1:12 – “‘Pick me up and throw me into the sea,’ replied Jonah, ‘and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.'”
• Matthew 27:38 – “Two rebels were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left.”
• Luke 23:39-43 – “One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: ‘Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ But the other criminal rebuked him. ‘Don’t you fear God,’ he said, ‘since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.'”
• John 12:6 – “He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.”
• Acts 5:1-11 – “Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.”
• Philemon 1:18 – “If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me.”

Justice and Personal Responsibility in Context of Stealing

• Leviticus 24:19-21 – “Anyone who injures their neighbor is to be injured in the same manner: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The one who has inflicted the injury must suffer the same injury. Whoever kills an animal must make restitution, but whoever kills a human being is to be put to death.”
• Ezekiel 22:29 – “The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the foreigner, denying them justice.”
• Matthew 7:12 – “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

Conclusion

As we wrap up our journey through the themes of stealing, consequences, repentance, and forgiveness in the Bible, let these Bible verses about stealing guide us toward a richer life beyond material wealth.