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.

Thou shalt not covet, х lo' (H3808) tachmod (H2530)] - Thou shalt not desire; Septuagint, ouk epithumeeseis, Thou shalt not set thine heart upon (Deuteronomy 5:21). Evil concupiscence is the root of all sin (Romans 7:7), especially of all offences which men commit against their fellow-men (Matthew 15:19; Mark 7:21). The preceding commandments refer primarily to the outward act, although, in the broad sense put upon them by our Lord, the passions and feelings which prompt to the commission of the deed appear sinful also. But in this case it is the covetous desire, the indulgence of the inward thought of longing appropriation, which is prohibited; and the reason is assigned by the apostle James, James 1:15.

The repetition of "Thou shalt not covet" does not indicate that there are two commandments: it is designed only to arrest attention; and this is evident from Deuteronomy 5:21, where a slight change in the order of enumeration is adopted. In this passage the word "house" may stand for household, and therefore include the catalogue of objects that follow. The Septuagint has here the same arrangement as in the parallel passage of Deuteronomy, where wife is put first; and there are some other deviations from the present Hebrew text [as oute ton agron autou, nor his field; it has: hupozugion oute pantos kteenous, his donkey (Matthew 21:5), nor any beast.]

These ten 'words' were delivered in circumstances of the greatest imaginable pomp and terror. Everything was so ordered as to give the most striking display of the glorious majesty of the Lawgiver, to point out the character of the law in its strictness and rigour, to impress a salutary dread of its tremendous penalties, and to inspire alarm by producing a sense of sin. These commandments, when seen in the spirituality and extent of their requirements, are "exceeding broad;" and while it may be presumed that multitudes in the ancient church entertained the same impression of their far-reaching authority as David, it was not until the time of Christ the Decalogue was represented and known in its true spirit and bearings on the character and lives or men-as reaching to the heart as well as to the conduct-to the motives as well as to the actions.

This law was given to God's people as the rule of their obedience, with the express promise concerning its commandments, that "if a man do them, he shall even live in them." Whosoever rests his hope upon that law stands a debtor to do it all. A hopeless attainment for fallen and sinful man. But thanks be to God that we can look to One who has "magnified the law" and rendered it consistent with the principles of the divine government to extend to transgressors the benefits of a free and full pardon (cf. Matthew 5:17).

But is the "law made void by faith" in this substitute of man? No; it is established. It is a law of perpetual obligation. Delivered from the summit of Mount Sinai, it was designed not for the chosen people alone, but ultimately for the whole human race. Its enactments are founded on the relations between God and man-between man and his fellows-so that as far as humanity extends they extend, and never will there be a period when they shall cease to exist.