גָּנַב
ga.nav (H1589)
to steal
AI Word Study
# The Hebrew Word for Stealing (ganav) The Hebrew verb ganav appears forty times throughout the biblical text and carries the straightforward meaning "to steal." This core definition encompasses the unlawful taking of another person's property, representing a fundamental violation of possession rights recognized across biblical law and narrative contexts. Given its relatively frequent occurrence across forty instances in the biblical corpus, ganav appears to have been significant enough to warrant consistent terminology in Hebrew moral and legal discourse. The word's persistence across different biblical genres—likely including legal codes, historical narratives, and wisdom literature—suggests that theft was a recurring concern in ancient Israelite society and ethics. The consistent use of a single verb root for this concept indicates that biblical authors had a clear, unified way of discussing this transgression across diverse situations and contexts. The existence of a dedicated, well-established term for stealing underscores that property rights and prohibitions against theft held an important place in ancient Hebrew thought and social structure. The word's presence in the biblical vocabulary reflects real-world concerns about protecting goods and establishing accountability for unlawful taking.
AI synthesis uses only provided lexicon data -- never training knowledge.
So my righteousness will answer for me hereafter, when you come concerning my hire that is before you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black among the sheep, that might be with me, will be considered stolen.”
Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep; and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father’s.
Jacob deceived Laban the Syrian, in that he didn’t tell him that he was running away.
Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have deceived me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword?
Why did you flee secretly, and deceive me, and didn’t tell me, that I might have sent you away with mirth and with songs, with tambourine and with harp;
Now, you want to be gone, because you greatly longed for your father’s house, but why have you stolen my gods?”
Anyone you find your gods with shall not live. Before our relatives, discern what is yours with me, and take it.” For Jacob didn’t know that Rachel had stolen them.
That which was torn of animals, I didn’t bring to you. I bore its loss. Of my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.
For indeed, I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon.”
Behold, the money, which we found in our sacks’ mouths, we brought again to you out of the land of Canaan. How then should we steal silver or gold out of your lord’s house?
“Anyone who kidnaps someone and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
“If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and kills it or sells it, he shall pay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.
“If a man delivers to his neighbor money or stuff to keep, and it is stolen out of the man’s house, if the thief is found, he shall pay double.
But if it is stolen from him, the one who stole shall make restitution to its owner.
“ ‘You shall not steal. “ ‘You shall not lie. “ ‘You shall not deceive one another.
If a man is found stealing any of his brothers of the children of Israel, and he deals with him as a slave, or sells him, then that thief shall die. So you shall remove the evil from among you.
Israel has sinned. Yes, they have even transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. Yes, they have even taken some of the devoted things, and have also stolen, and also deceived. They have even put it among their own stuff.
Absalom did this sort of thing to all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.
The people sneaked into the city that day, as people who are ashamed steal away when they flee in battle.
Behold, all the men of Israel came to the king, and said to the king, “Why have our brothers the men of Judah stolen you away, and brought the king, and his household, over the Jordan, and all David’s men with him?”
So David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh Gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, in the day that the Philistines killed Saul in Gilboa;
But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king’s sons who were slain, even him and his nurse, and put them in the bedroom; and they hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not slain.
But Jehoshabeath, the king’s daughter, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stealthily rescued him from among the king’s sons who were slain, and put him and his nurse in the bedroom. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of king Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest (for she was the sister of Ahaziah), hid him from Athaliah, so that she didn’t kill him.
“Now a thing was secretly brought to me. My ear received a whisper of it.
How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind, as chaff that the storm carries away?
Men don’t despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry;
“Stolen water is sweet. Food eaten in secret is pleasant.”
lest I be full, deny you, and say, ‘Who is Yahweh?’ or lest I be poor, and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.
Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known,
“Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” says Yahweh, “who each steal my words from his neighbor.
There is cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break boundaries, and bloodshed causes bloodshed.
“If thieves came to you, if robbers by night—oh, what disaster awaits you—wouldn’t they only steal until they had enough? If grape pickers came to you, wouldn’t they leave some gleaning grapes?
Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the surface of the whole land; for everyone who steals shall be cut off according to it on the one side; and everyone who swears falsely shall be cut off according to it on the other side.