Robbery: Practised by the Ishmaelites
(Genesis 16:12) the Chaldeans and Sabeans
(Job 1:15,17) and the men of Shechem
(Judges 9:25) See also
(1 Samuel 27:6-10; 30:1; Hosea 4:2; 6:9) Robbers infested Judea in our Lord's
time
(Luke 10:30; John 18:40; Acts 5:36,37; 21:38; 2 Corinthians 11:26) The words of
the Authorized Version, "counted it not robbery to be equal," etc.
(Philippians 2:6,7) are better rendered in the Revised Version, "counted it
not a prize to be on an equality," etc., i.e., "did not look upon
equality with God as a prize which must not slip from his grasp" "did
not cling with avidity to the prerogatives of his divine majesty; did
not ambitiously display his equality with God." "Robbers of churches"
should be rendered, as in the Revised Version, "of temples." In the
temple at Ephesus there was a great treasure-chamber, and as all that
was laid up there was under the guardianship of the goddess Diana, to
steal from such a place would be sacrilege
(Acts 19:37)
