BIBLE VERSE STUDY
Exodus 20:17 — The Tenth Commandment Against Coveting
Exodus 20:17, the last of the Ten Commandments, forbids coveting a neighbor's possessions, including household, family members, servants, and livestock.
Scripture
17Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.
What this passage means
Exodus 20:17 closes the Ten Commandments by addressing the sin of coveting. Unlike the preceding commands, which forbid external actions such as murder, adultery, theft, and false witness, this final commandment targets the inward desire that precedes those very acts. The verse lists a representative inventory of a neighbor's property: house, wife, male servant, female servant, ox, and donkey, and then adds a summary clause covering 'anything that is thy neighbor's.' This widening pattern shows that no category of possession is exempt from the prohibition.
The structure is striking. The neighbor's 'house' (בֵּ֣ית, H1004) is named first, and 'wife' (אֵ֣שֶׁת, H0802) follows immediately. By listing the wife alongside the house and the livestock, the verse presents the household as a single ordered domain whose boundaries belong to the neighbor. The verb rendered 'covet' (חָמַד, H2530) carries the sense of 'to delight in' or to set the heart upon something, indicating that the commandment reaches not only the act of taking but the desire that precedes it. Each prohibited item is bound to the neighbor (רֵעַ, H7453), reinforcing that the issue is not the object itself but the wrongful desire directed toward what belongs to another.
The closing phrase, 'anything that is thy neighbor's,' uses the all‑encompassing word כֹּל (H3605) to extend the prohibition beyond the listed items. Negation is expressed by לֹא (H3808). The wider chapter context (vv. 18–20) shows that the covenant community stood in awe at Sinai after hearing these words, and Moses explained that God's purpose was that 'his fear may be before you, that ye sin not' (v. 20). The tenth commandment guards the heart because covenant faithfulness depends on desires being shaped by the covenant, not by what belongs to the neighbor.
Context
Exodus 20:17 is the tenth and final word in the Decalogue spoken by God at Sinai (v. 1 'And God spake all these words'). The 'curated note' identifies the chapter as containing 'The Ten Commandments.' The opening statement 'I am Jehovah thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt' (v. 2) frames the commands as covenant obligations grounded in redemption. The commandments are arranged in two groupings: commands 1–4 concern duties toward God, and commands 5–10 concern duties toward fellow humans, with verse 12 (honoring parents) bridging the two. Verses 13–17 form the cluster on human relationships: murder, adultery, theft, false witness, and coveting.
Within this cluster, 17 stands as the climax because it addresses the inner disposition that gives rise to the outward sins listed just before it. The people face the visible theophany of thunder, lightning, trumpet, and a smoking mountain (v. 18), and Moses explains that God's purpose is that 'his fear may be before you, that ye sin not' (v. 20). The chapter then moves into statutes about altars (vv. 22–26), a separate unit following the close of the Decalogue.
Key words in the original
- H2530 The verb חָמַד (ḥāmaḏ, H2530) is glossed 'to delight in.' In Exodus 20:17 it is the verb rendered 'covet.' The nuance is not the act of taking but the inward setting of the heart on something, which is why the commandment can address desire before it becomes action.
- H1004 The noun בַּיִת (bayiṯ, H1004) is glossed 'house,' though its definition notes the wide range of applications, including family. In verse 17 naming the 'house' first frames the entire household domain as the neighbor's property.
- H3605 The word כֹּל (kōl, H3605) is glossed 'anything' and defined as 'the whole; hence, all, any or every.' Its presence in the closing clause extends the prohibition beyond the listed items (house, wife, servants, livestock) to anything that belongs to the neighbor.
Related verses
- Romans 7:7 Paul cites Exodus 20:17 directly ('Thou shalt not covet') to argue that the law exposes interior sin. The verse itself treats coveting as the kind of inward desire that the tenth commandment was designed to surface.
- Romans 13:9 Paul groups the commandments against adultery, killing, stealing, and coveting together and then sums them up under 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' Exodus 20:17 sits at the head of this list as the culminating prohibition of the second table.
- Luke 12:15 Jesus' warning 'keep yourselves from all covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth' parallels the tenth commandment's concern: the danger is not what one has but the desire for more of what belongs to someone else.
Common questions
Why does the tenth commandment list specific items like house, wife, and livestock?
The list represents the full inventory of an Israelite household, and the verse then closes with a catch‑all phrase ('anything that is thy neighbor's'). The point is not which items are named but that the entire domain of the neighbor's possessions is covered. Within the second table of the Decalogue, this command reaches beyond actions to the desire that would lay hold of any of those things.
How is the tenth commandment different from the ninth?
The ninth commandment forbids false witness (v. 16), an external speech act. The tenth commandment (v. 17) forbids coveting, an internal desire. The Decalogue thus moves from regulating speech to regulating the heart, showing that the covenant addressed not only actions but the desires that give rise to them.
Does the sin of coveting apply to non-material things as well?
Exodus 20:17 itself uses the broad phrase 'anything that is thy neighbor's' (כֹּל, H3605) to extend the prohibition beyond the listed items. The verse's own formulation does not limit the sin to material possessions, though the enumerated examples (house, wife, servants, livestock) are material. The cross references (e.g., Ephesians 5:5; Colossians 3:5) extend the language of coveting to a wider spiritual frame, but the text of Exodus 20:17 grounds the prohibition in what belongs to the neighbor.