We normally think of fraud as a misrepresentation of the facts to gain a profit. But as we shall see fraud is a lot more than that. The basic law of fraud in found in Leviticus 19:13:

"Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until morning."

This is probably the passage that John the Baptist was referring to in Luke 3:14, in which he warned the soldiers who came to him:

"... Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely: and be content with your wage."

Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. James 5:4

That God resented this defrauding of the hireling we see very plainly in Malachi 3:5:

"And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against ... those that oppress the hireling in his wages..."

Nothing could be more explicit than this, and nothing more comprehensive in its meaning. No Israelite could:

1. deliberately appropriate what he knew was not his own, or
2. rob his neighbour in the act of trading, or
3. deal falsely or unrighteously in any transaction or in any relation, without consciously breaking the Law and coming under the displeasure and judgment of God.

The purpose of this law is to prohibit all unjust oppression, any seizure of the goods of another, and it also deals with faults of power, or as stated earlier "the conversion of might into right." The particulars mentioned are oppression, robbing, and undue retention of wages. The thing of great interest to us is the concept of "might makes right," because this is particularly directed against abuses of power and oppression.

This point is an important one. Many of the goals sought by modern governments are a part of the Mosaic law, but with a significant difference. Biblical law required the just treatment of the laborer; it forbad fraud in foods, measures, money, and drugs. It required soil conservation, and much more, but not by administrative agencies.

In Scripture, the criminal law forbad murder and theft. All harmful drugs and foods were forbidden as destructive of life; fraudulent foods and goods were theft, and so on. In modern society, these offenses are too often the jurisdiction of arbitrary administrative agencies, as are labor problems, with the result that the criminal law is subverted and the very purpose of this law, the prevention of oppression, has been nullified.

Moreover, because civil statute law has replaced Biblical law, men can be harmed and their lives shortened by dangerous drugs and sprays, and no crime exists unless a statute covers that specific offense. The combination of statute law and administrative law has not protected us but has created oppression, whereas the common law of Scripture gives man a principle of justice applicable to any given situation.

It is possible to defraud our neighbor by a variety of ways. For example, his property can be alienated by expropriation, injury, restrictive legislation, and a variety of other means. A man's property, moreover, includes more than his land, home, material possessions, and money.

A man has a property also in his ideas and inventions. Thus patents have a long history as an outgrowth of this law against theft. The fact that patent laws have sometimes been very poor during that long history does not nullify their necessity. Copyright laws, like patent laws, also rest on the premise that a man has a property right in his written works.

Leviticus 19:13 has also been translated as: "Neither use extortion toward your neighbor," and the Torah translation renders it as "You shall not coerce your neighbor." So it seems like the reference here is to any kind of oppression, legal or illegal, whereby another man is deprived of his property and possessions.

When men are given to lawlessness, their society will also be lawless, as will be their laws and courts. In legal extortion or fraud, men use the agency of the state or its courts to conduct their robberies. Laws which discriminate against the poor because they are poor, or against the rich because they are rich, are laws of extortion. Laws which seek to equalize men's incomes, such as the income tax, are laws of extortion.

The basic intention of this law, since it deals with "the faults of power," is to legislate against the various forms of legalized robbery which so often accompany the control of the state by one class or another. The references to this law in Scripture are many. To cite a few, Proverbs 22:22- 23 declares:

Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate; For the LORD will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them.

"Whoso robbeth his father or his mother, and saith, It is no transgression; the same is the companion of a destroyer."

"...and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us."

"...he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool."

It is difficult to compare Biblical sins with statutory crimes since Biblical law is based on moral principles whereas statutory crimes are only those which fit into the structure of the statute sought to be enforced. However, civil statutes represent only the will of the state, and the will of the state is not an objective and absolute moral order -- but it exists exclusively to further the purposes of the state.