* ISRAEL had a system of honesty, thus providing a basis for commerce.
Leviticus 19:36 “Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have.”
Proverbs 11:1 “A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.”
• In ISRAEL, land was permanently titled to each family. This contrasted with most of the world, where kings granted land to loyal vassals, or as in Egypt, where the pharaohs owned the land.
Israel called it the Promised “Land” because each family owned title to their land. This prevented a dictator from gathering up the land and putting the people back into slavery.
If a person owned land, they could accumulate possessions. The Bible called this being “blessed”; Karl Marx called it being a “capitalist.”
Marx wrote in his Manifesto: “The theory of the communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.”
Noah Webster wrote in the preface of his Dictionary (republished 1841):
“Let the people have property and they will have power – a power that will forever be exerted to prevent a restriction of the press, and abolition of trial by jury, or the abridgement of any other privilege.”