Summary: Property rites were matters of great importance to God and to the ancients as seen by numerous biblical texts and ancient artifacts.
Thus says the Lord GOD: “This is the boundary by which you shall divide the land for inheritance among the twelve tribes of Israel…” – Ezekiel 47:13 (ESV)
The Significance of Landmarks in the Bible
“Honesty is the best policy.” Obviously, not everyone lives by this code. Sadly enough devious, surreptitious, and selfish people exist to warrant legislation against theft and fraud. Such laws govern not only our society, but probably have been necessary in all ancient societies, including the Bible and its contemporary cultures.
The LORD decreed: “You shall not move your neighbor’s landmark, which the men of old have set, in the inheritance that you will hold in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess” (Deut. 19:14; cf. Pro. 22:28). Anyone who would do so was to be cursed (Deut. 27:17). The LORD in Deuteronomy categorized such infractions with idolatry (27:15), incest and bestiality (27:20-23), murder (27:24), and bribery (27:25). What were these landmarks that they should be so important?
The ancient landmarks were not monuments to events recorded in the Bible (e.g., the death of Rachel, Gen. 35:16-21; Israel’s crossing the Jordan, Josh. 4:19-24). Instead, they were to demarcate one person’s parcel of land from another’s. When Ruth returned to Bethlehem with Naomi, she entered the fields around the town to glean and “she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz” (Ruth 2:3). If, in this situation there were physical landmarks (perhaps deriving from the initial division of the land to the tribes and families in Joshua 13-21), they were intended to separate Boaz’s property from his neighbor’s.
In certain parts of the Near East similar ancient landmarks can still be seen. They often consist simply of stones lined up through the fields. While some may be low walls, others might be stacks of stones widely separated in a line. Under these circumstances, a dishonest person, perhaps under cover of darkness, might move the line of stones, thereby increasing his/ her own parcel. The LORD’s legislation prohibits such “land rustling.”
Job decried those who would remove the landmarks and condemned them as those who rustle cattle (Job 24:2). Hosea declared the LORD’s anger against Judah’s greed comparing them to those who remove landmarks (5:10). These landmarks identified one’s inheritance and implied fulfillment of the LORD’s promise to care for his people. Hence the LORD prohibited taking land from the fatherless (Pro. 23:10) and promised to care for the widow and her inheritance (Pro. 15:23), thus ensuring the property rights of the disadvantaged. (See the discovery of a Hebrew inscription that may redraw Israel’s ancient borders in the eyes of many historians.)
Ancient Boundary Stones in the Lands Around Israel
Some of Israel’s neighbors had similar landmarks as well as accompanying restrictions. The sixth chapter of the “Instruction of Amenemope,” an Egyptian document from the Ramesside period (i.e., 13th-11th centuries BC), reads:
- Do not move the markers on the borders of the fields,
- Nor shift the position of the measuring cord.
- Do not be greedy for a cubit of land,
- Nor encroach on the boundaries of a widow.1
In Mesopotamia spanning ca. 1600-650 BC, similar, but more formal boundary stones called kudurru, were used. Many of these were quite elaborate with figures and inscriptions on them. One in the British Museum describes the purchase of a land parcel, with an elaborate warning and curse on anyone who would deny his ownership or would do anything to destroy, move, or bury the property marker. (See more about a trip to the British Museum and its Ashurbanipal exhibit.)
Similar stones to demarcate property boundaries could sometimes be found in the Intertestamental period. A series of inscribed stones marked off an estate centering on the ancient site of Gezer (photo at top of article). These stones were valuable data to confirm the ancient site’s identification.3
Other Landmarks as Property Markers
Sometimes, however, other features were used to describe the range of a person’s real estate holdings. When Abraham negotiated for Machpelah in which he buried Sarah, the Bible states: “the field with the cave that was in it and all the trees that were in the field, throughout its whole area, was made over to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the Hittites…” (Gen. 23:17-18).
The reference to trees seems odd until one compares a Hittite property deed which includes a tally of trees: “As pasture for oxen, 1 acre of meadow in the town Parkalla. 3 1/2 acres of vineyard, and in it 40 apple-trees (?), 42 pomegranate-trees (?), in the town of Hanzusra, belonging to the estate of Hantapis.”4
Since Abraham’s negotiations were with the Hittites, it is no surprise that their customs would control the legal formats. The detailed description of the land would help deter later disputes that might arise. Interestingly the Bible indicates that the deed was secure since, eventually, not only Sarah, but Abraham, Isaac, Rebekah, Leah, and Jacob were buried in the cave of Machpelah, apparently without incident (Gen. 49:28-32; 50:13).
These property rites were obviously matters of great importance to the LORD as well as to various non-Israelites. If God was so concerned about the need for people to respect the landmarks, boundaries, and trees in secular contexts, would it not follow that he would expect similar respect to boundaries of faithfulness, worship, and service that he has set? – KEEP THINKING
- 1 Miriam Lichtheim, “Instruction of Amenomope (1.47).” Pp. 115-22 in Context of Scripture, vol 1. Eds. W. W. Hallo and K. L. Younger, Jr. (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 1.117.2
- 2 British Museum item number 90841. Accessible through the British Museum website. Photo courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum.
- 3 W. G. Dever, H. D. Lance, and G. E. Wright, Gezer I (Jerusalem: Hebrew Union College, 1970), 1-2, 6-7.
- 4 O. R. Gurney, The Hittites (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1961), 81.
Dr. Dale W. Manor is Professor Emeritus of Archaeology and Bible at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas. He has worked on several excavations and since 2000 he has been the Field Director of the Tel Beth-Shemesh Excavation Project in Israel. Manor served as an Assistant to the Editor of the Anchor Bible Dictionary in which he has several articles. He is also published in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East, the Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible and the New Interpreters’ Dictionary of the Bible. Manor holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Archaeology from the University of Arizona. In his teaching responsibilities at Harding University his areas of expertise are archaeology, Old Testament, ministry, Syro-Palestinian archaeology, and Hebrew history.
TOP PHOTO: An inscribed stone marking the border of an estate near the ancient site of Gezer. (© Dale Manor)
NOTE: Not every view expressed by scholars contributing Thinker articles necessarily reflects the views of Patterns of Evidence. We include perspectives from various sides of debates on biblical matters so that readers can become familiar with the different arguments involved. – Keep Thinking!
