Exo 20:17 - "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."
Deut 5:21 - "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbor's house or land, his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."
The differences in the way this commandment is phrased in Exo and Deut has raised some questions that have divided interpreters. Whereas Exo uses the same verb, chamad, 'covet,' 'desire,' for both "your neighbour's house" as well as "your neighbour's wife," and in that order, Deut uses two verbs, and in reversed order: "you shall not covet, chamad your neighbour's wife," and "you shall not desire, 'awa your neighbour's house, etc." As we have already noted in the introduction to the Ten Commandments, Roman Catholics and Lutheran run Deut 5:7 and 8-10 (what we have here considered as the First and Second Commandments) together into a single commandment but divide the commandment not to "covet your neighbour's wife" and the command not to "set your desire on your neighbour's house . . ." into the Ninth and the Tenth Commandment respectively.
It is also felt that, since the essence of the first half of the commandment—"do not covet your neighbour's wife"—has already been covered in the Seventh Commandment ("do not commit adultery"), this command has then to do with "sins of the heart" in contrast to the overt sin of adultery.
On balance, it is doubtful if such a distinction can be upheld on exegetical grounds. The two verbs used in Deut should probably to be understood as a hendiadys to cover the entire span of our yen to crave, whether it is enacted or remains only as an urging in the heart. The hendiadys signals a singular intention; it condemns the appetite for what does not belong to us. From the perspective of Israel's covenantal relationship, coveting represents a discontent with what Yhwh has provided so that we turn with greedy eyes to what belongs to our neighbours. In the larger sense of things the commandment protects our neighbours from us, from our greed for what God has given them.
The Tenth Commandment
protects our neighbours from us,
from what God has given them,
from our appetite for what does not belong to us.
Low Chai Hok
©Alberith, 2013