Current sectionJewish WorldShare to FacebookShare to XArticle printing is available to subscribers onlyPrint in a simple, ad-free formatSubscribeComments: Zen reading is available to subscribers onlyAd-free and in a comfortable reading formatSubscribeA Lebanese citizen looking at damage caused by an IDF bombing of her home, in May. Credit: Mohammed Zaatari / APThe ban on looting long predates international law. Amid reports of looting by Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, we revisit how the Bible and ancient classical texts warned against turning war into a private business08:55 AM • June 19 2026 IDTThe Book of Esther ends with the Jews' victory over their adversaries: On the day they were supposed to become an object of killing, they killed their enemies. At the height of this reversal of fate, when they are hanging Haman and his 10 sons, the biblical author emphasizes that, notwithstanding the Jews' great triumph, "on the spoil[s] they laid not their hand" (9:10).In the News'We Want to See How People Live Outside Our Druze Community – and Then Return'Netanyahu Hoped His Trump Card Would Win the Election, but He's HumiliatedTrump's Treaty of Versailles Crowns Israel's October 7 War as a Strategic Defeat'Nobody's Born a Soldier': The Israeli Teens Who Say the Draft Is a ChoicePalestinian Head of Wisconsin's Largest Mosque Released From ICE DetentionRemembering and rebuilding two years laterICYMIHumiliated by Trump on the Iran Front, Netanyahu May Set the Middle East Ablaze'Once-in-a-lifetime Discovery': 1,700-year-old Roman Busts Found in IsraelTrump and Netanyahu Hurtling Toward a Rupture That Could Shock U.S.-Israel TiesNetanyahu's Mouthpieces Turn on Trump, Revealing a Deeper Israeli IngratitudeFork Found in Kitchen: Israelis Have Discovered the OccupationIran Reportedly Calls Off Missile Strikes on Israel After Trump Intervenes