Esteemed by the Ishmaelites as creditable (Genesis 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" (Judges 9:25). Also David plundering the Amalekites, etc. (1 Samuel 27:6-10); they made reprisals (1 Samuel 30). In Israel's disorganized state in the northern kingdom this evil was very prevalent (Hosea 4:2; Hosea 6:9; Micah 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 (Luke 10:30; John 18:40; Acts 5:36-37; Acts 21:38; 2 Corinthians 11:26). (On the punishment of robbery, see Exodus 22.) (For "thieves" translated "robbers", see Matthew 27:38.)