Esteemed by the Ishmaelites as creditable (Gen_16:12). Predatory incursions were frequent on the part of the Chaldaeans and Sabeans (Job_1:15; Job_1:17). The "liers in wait" of the men of Shechem are instances also, "robbing all that came along that way" (Jdg_9:25). Also David plundering the Amalekites, etc. (1Sa_27:6-10); they made reprisals (1 Samuel 30). In Israel's disorganized state in the northern kingdom this evil was very prevalent (Hos_4:2; Hos_6:9; Mic_2:8). Owing to the corrupt administration of Roman governors, and the facility of collecting and hiding banditti in the natural caves of Palestine, robbers infested Judaea much in our Lord's time and the age following (Luk_10:30; Joh_18:40; Act_5:36-37; Act_21:38; 2Co_11:26). (On the punishment of robbery, see Exodus 22.) (For "thieves" translated "robbers", see Mat_27:38.)
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
Robbery. Robbery has ever been one of the principal employments of the nomad tribes of the East. From the time of Ishmael to the present day, the Bedouin has been a "wild man," and a robber by trade. Gen_16:12. The Mosaic law on the subject of theft is contained in Exo_2:2. There seems no reason to suppose that the law underwent any alteration in Solomon's time. Man-stealing was punishable with death. Exo_21:16; Exo_24:7. Invasion of right in land was strictly forbidden. Deu_27:17; Isa_5:8; Mic_2:2.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863