197. Landmarks

From: Manners and Customs of the Bible By: James M. Freeman

• 1 min. read • grade level: 10

Deuteronomy 19:14¹⁴Thou shalt not remove thy neighbor'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. (Deuteronomy 19:14). Thou shalt not remove thy neighbor’s landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance.

In the East the fields of different owners are not marked by fences, as with us, but the boundaries are indicated by heaps of small stones, or by a ridge, or by posts, or by single stones set upright about a rod apart. It is easy for a dishonest man to remove these landmarks, little by little each year, and thus gradually encroach upon his neighbor. This practice is alluded to in Job 24:2²Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof. (Job 24:2), and is forbidden in Proverbs 22:28²⁸Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set. (Proverbs 22:28) and 23:10 as in our text. A curse was pronounced upon those who removed landmarks (Deut. 27:17¹⁷Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor's landmark. And all the people shall say, Amen. (Deuteronomy 27:17)). A figurative allusion is made to this crime in Hosea 5:10¹⁰The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound: therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water. (Hosea 5:10).

Not only the Jews, but other ancient nations, especially the Romans, had stringent laws against the removal of landmarks. In the British Museum are two or three very curious Babylonian monuments which are supposed to have been landmarks, and to be covered with curses on those who remove them. One of them is of marble, in shape of a massive fish. On the head is the figure of a serpent, and various other characters; and on the sides, in arrow-headed letters, are the curses.

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