Exodus 20:17

Thou shall not covet thy neighbour's house,.... This is the tenth and last commandment, and is an explanation of several of the past; showing that the law of God not only forbids external acts of

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

The coveting here forbidden is either, 1. The inward and deliberate purpose and desire of a deceitful or violent taking away of another man’ s goods; but this is forbidden in the eighth commandment. And it is hard to conceive that St. Paul should think that this command did not forbid such a practice, , which even the better sort of heathens esteemed a sin, whose words are, that they who are withheld from incest, or whoredom, or theft, only from a principle of fear, are guilty of those crimes; especially seeing the Old Testament Scriptures, which doubtless he diligently studied, do so plainly condemn evil purposes of the heart, as ,5 15:7,9, &c. Or, 2. The greedy desire of that which is another man’ s, though it be without injury to him. Thus Ahab sinned in desiring Naboth’ s vineyard, though he offered him money for it, . Or rather, 3. Those inward motions of the heart, which from the fountain of original corruption do spring up in the heart, and tickle it with some secret delight, though they do not obtain tie deliberate consent of the will. For seeing this law of God is spiritual and holy, ,14, and reacheth the thoughts, intents, and all the actual motions of the heart, as is apparent from the nature of God, and of his law; and seeing such motions are both the fruits of a sinful nature, and the common causes of sinful actions, and are not agreeable either to man’ s first and uncorrupted nature, or to God’ s law; they must needs be a swerving from it, and therefore sin. And this is the reason why this command is added as distinct from all the rest.

Exodus 20:17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’ s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’ s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that [is] thy neighbour’ s.Ver. 17. Thou shalt not covet.] One observeth that the word Concupisco, here used, is inceptive; to show that the very first motion is sin, though no consent be yielded. Thy neighbour’ s house.] House is here first set, as that which holds and harbours all the rest. Neither will a wise man take a wife before he hath a house. Birds will not couple till their nest be ready. To these ten words, written by God himself in the day of the assembly, divines have reduced those other laws, moral, judicial, and ceremonial, written by Moses. And herein Alstedius, that excellent methodist, hath, in his "Harmonia Mosaica," as in all those brief but pithy notes upon the Pentateuch, done the Church of Christ singular good service; whom therefore - for a preface to that which follows in the opening of this and the three next books, and for the use of my English reader - I have abridged, translated and the same here inserted. SECTION I. Of reducing all the Moral Laws to the Decalogue. To the first commandment belong laws that concern faith, hope, and love to God. First, Faith: as, that there is but one God, and three Persons, Jehovah Elohim; that he will send them a Prophet greater than Moses; that he is to be honoured with our confidence, patience, and inward worship, Next, Hope: of favour, grace, and glory. Thirdly, Love to God with the whole heart; filial fear, humble prayer, holy vows, constant care to avoid idolising the creature, seeking to the devil, tempting of God, listening to seducers, &c. To the second commandment belong laws made against gross idolatry, will worship, &c., and for right worship. To the third pertain laws for prayer, thanksgiving, oaths, lots, blasphemies, worthy walking, &c. To the fourth, all laws of sanctifying the Sabbath. To the fifth, of honouring and reverencing parents, princes, elders, &c., and of punishing rebellious children. To the sixth may be reduced all laws concerning murder, revenge, rancour, smiting, fighting, cursing the deaf, laying a block before the blind, &c. To the seventh, all that is said against fornication, adultery, sodomy, incest, wearing the apparel of the other sex. To the eighth, laws against robbery, rapine, usury, sacrilege, detaining wages or pledges, removing landmarks, accepting of persons, taking of gifts, false weights, &c. To the ninth belong laws against backbiting, tale bearing, false witnessing, judging, not admonishing, &c. To the tenth no laws are referred: because it is wholly spiritual, and hath no visible violations. SECTION II. Of reducing Judicial Laws to the Decalogue. To the first commandment: It was death, (1.) To deny obedience to the priest, who was a type of Christ; (2.) To persuade apostasy from the true God; (3.) To seek to witches and wizards.

(17) Thou shalt not covet.—This command seems to have been added in order to teach the general principle that the Law of God is concerned, not with acts and words only, but with the thoughts of the heart. Rightly understood, the seventh and eighth commandments contain the tenth, which strikes at covetousness and lustful desire. (Comp. Matthew 5:27-28.) But ancient moralists did not usually recognise this; thought, unless carried out into acts, was regarded as “free;” no responsibility was considered to attach to it, and consequently no one felt it needful to control his thoughts or regulate them. It was therefore of importance that the Divine Law should distinctly assert a control over men’s thoughts and feelings, since they are the source of all that is evil in word and act; and true godliness consists in bringing “every thought into captivity to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

THE TENTH COMMANDMENT Against covetousness. Verse 17. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house - wife, c.] Covet signifies to desire or long after, in order to enjoy as a property the person or thing coveted. He breaks this command who by any means endeavours to deprive a man of his house or farm by taking them over his head, as it is expressed in some countries who lusts after his neighbour's wife, and endeavours to ingratiate himself into her affections, and to lessen her husband in her esteem; and who endeavours to possess himself of the servants, cattle, c., of another in any clandestine or unjustifiable manner. "This is a most excellent moral precept, the observance of which will prevent all public crimes for he who feels the force of the law that prohibits the inordinate desire of any thing that is the property of another, can never make a breach in the peace of society by an act of wrong to any of even its feeblest members."

17. The tenth commandment. The most inward of all the commandments, forbidding not an external act, but a hidden mental state, a state, however, which is the spring and root of nearly every sin against a neighbour, the unlawful desire (ἐπιθυμία) for something which is another’s. covet] lit. desire, which may be used of a perfectly lawful, and indeed laudable, affection (Psalms 19:10; Psalms 68:16): it acquires its bad sense solely from the context; comp. Joshua 7:21, and especially Micah 2:2. house] i.e. (Kn. Di. Bδ. al.) domestic establishment generally (Genesis 15:2, Job 8:15): examples follow of things belonging to it, and most likely to be coveted, wife, male and female slaves, &c. In Deuteronomy 5:21 the wife is given the first place, and the house and other belongings follow, shewing that ‘house’ is there used in the sense of ‘dwelling.’ In its original form, the command—no doubt—ended at ‘house’ (i.e. establishment), the examples following being a later expansion. ‘The command is aimed against that greedy desire for another’s goods, which so often issued in violent acts—the oppressions and cheating which were rife among the wealthier classes, and were denounced by the prophets’ (McNeile, p. lix): cf. Amos 3:10; Amos 5:11, Micah 2:2; Micah 2:9, Isaiah 3:14-15; Isaiah 5:8, &c.

THE TENTH , Exodus 20:17. 17. Thou shalt not covet — The word çîã, here rendered covet, occurs some twenty times in the Hebrew Scriptures, and is commonly translated by desire.