Exodus 20:17
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You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, or his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
All things being prepared for the solemn promulgation of the divine law, we have, in this chapter, I. The ten commandments, as God himself spoke them upon mount Sinai (v. 1-17), as remarkable a portion of scripture as any in the Old Testament. II. The impressions made upon the people thereby (Exo 20:18-21). III. Some particular instructions which God gave privately to Moses, to be by him communicated to the people, relating to his worship (Exo 20:22, etc.).
Open source ↗20:17 This final principle circles back to the first, for “a greedy person is an idolater” (Col 3:5). Covetousness is the worship of this world, the belief that possessions, especially those my neighbor possesses, will give me lasting happiness. To believe this is to break one’s covenant of absolute loyalty to God, who alone supplies our needs. See also Rom 7:7.
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
Other passages the community most often connects to this one. Tap to read.
The commandments “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and any other commandments, are summed up in this one decree: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
And He said to them, “Watch out! Guard yourselves against every form of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God has said: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”
For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure, or greedy person (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
But among you, as is proper among the saints, there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed.
Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.
What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have been mindful of sin if not for the law. For I would not have been aware of coveting if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”
They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing after his neighbor’s wife.
They covet fields and seize them; they take away houses. They deprive a man of his home, a fellow man of his inheritance.
nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.