Do not move the ancient landmark

[Chad]

Do not move the ancient landmark that your fathers have set. // Proverbs‬ ‭22‬:‭28‬

I was curious what this meant. Let's study.

Easton Bible Dictionary

Landmark
a boundary line indicated by a stone, stake, etc. (Deut. 19:14; 27:17; Prov. 22:28; 23:10; Job 24:2). Landmarks could not be removed without incurring the severe displeasure of God.

Matthew Henry's Commentary

We are here taught not to invade another man’s right, though we can find ways of doing it ever so secretly and plausibly, clandestinely and by fraud, without any open force. Let not property in general be entrenched upon, by robbing men of their liberties and privileges, or of any just ways of maintaining them. Let not the property of particular persons be encroached upon. The land-marks, or meer-stones, are standing witnesses to every man’s right; let not those be removed quite away, for thence come wars, and fightings, and endless disputes; let them not be removed so as to take from thy neighbour’s lot to thy own, for that is downright robbing him and entailing the fraud upon posterity. 2. We may infer hence that a deference is to be paid, in all civil matters, to usages that have prevailed time out of mind and the settled constitutions of government, in which it becomes us to acquiesce, lest an attempt to change it, under pretence of changing it for the better, prove of dangerous consequence.

 

[Dovegiven]

Do not move the ancient landmark that your fathers have set. // Proverbs‬ ‭22‬:‭28‬

Not only is robbery a major issue, but so is destruction of relations with a neighbor, and often sparking life-long warfare between families. Once a pile of rocks marking a corner
is moved, one might forgive the trespass, but never trust that neighbor again. Many of us owning forestland have had that problem. Landowners will too often look the other way letting a logger company move very old piles of stones that mark corners to "justify" taking valuable trees. Typically the most valuable trees are close to property lines, old neighbors retaining a wide "virgin" zone out of respect for each other, not wishing to risk an accident from a falling tree. Our state law awards 4 times the value of trees illegally harvested. Law also requires reporting that crime, as it affects sawmills that buy logs, which end up paying the big penalty if the seller can't, and damages credibility of their timber agents that buy from the loggers. The offending neighbor, whether scheming or not, also is liable to restore the damaged forest ($350/acre minimum), cover brush control until seedlings are established ($200/ac/year) and pay for a land survey ($2,500 minimum) and pays all legal costs.

All that and more troubles starting with a greedy thought and a couple hours of moving some rocks about as far as they can be thrown. Sin always goes beyond one sinner.