10th Commandment: Do Not Desire Your Neighbor’s Possessions

Reflection Questions

• How does the 10th Commandment relate to all the commandments that come before it?

• What harm can come from desiring what belongs to our neighbor?

• How is human desire like streams endlessly flowing into the ocean, endless toilsome work, or the grave (Ec. 1:7-8; Prov. 27:19-20)?

• How can we respond to a desire to possess what belongs to our neighbor?

• How might we flip over this command’s meaning into a positive?

Chapter 1: The Meaning of “Desire”

In commandments 6-10, Yahweh addresses behavior that’s connected to our neighbor. Do not take your neighbor’s life, spouse, stuff, or endanger them by bearing false witness against them. Then the 10th Commandment addresses our desire for everything that belongs to our neighbor.

Most English translations use the word “covet,” but Exodus 20:17 is simply the Hebrew word khamad, or desire. Deuteronomy 5’s parallel list of the 10 Commandments uses khamad and a secondary word, ’avah, which means to crave. While ’avah relates more closely to physical appetites, both khamad and ’avah describe the act of seeing something and experiencing a strong internal impulse to possess it (see khamad in Josh. 7:20-21 and Isa. 26:8-9, and ’avah in Num. 11:4-6, Ps. 10:17-18, and Ps. 38:8-9).

Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire that is fulfilled is a tree of life.” In this passage, the use of ’avah connects to the role desire plays in the Eden story. In Genesis 2-3, the tree of life represents God’s own abundant, unending life that he offers to the humans. But as we see in that story, desiring the forbidden tree’s fruit leads to death, just like desiring things that belong to our neighbor can lead to folly and death.

Commandments 1-9 refer to observable behavior. But the desire forbidden in the 10th Commandment is completely internal, addressing something upstream of all the others. Why would a person break any of the other commandments? Probably because a disordered desire is driving their decisions.

Chapter 2: How the Hebrew Bible Talks About Desire

In Genesis 2:9, Yahweh plants a garden in Eden that features every kind of tree that is “desirable (khamad) for seeing and good for eating.” So all the trees were desirable, but just one tree could kill you if you ate from it. This is meant to teach us the wisdom that many things are desirable, but not all desirable things are good for us. And we need God’s wisdom to guide us toward fulfilling good desires.

In Genesis 3:6, the order is switched to “good for eating and desirable for seeing.” It’s as if Eve doesn’t pause to consider if this desirable thing is good for her; she jumps straight to possessing it and uniting with it. It’s also striking that the word for “desirable” here is ta’avah, which is connected to our word for physical craving (’avah), and the one used in Deuteronomy 5’s version of the 10th Commandment. We can be tempted to recklessly desire and take what belongs to our neighbor in the same way Adam and Eve took from the forbidden tree.

Even though we are finite creatures, our desires and longings seem to never be satisfied, a reality that Ecclesiastes 1:7-8 compares to streams flowing endlessly into the sea, or toilsome work that is never finished. Proverbs 27:19-20 agrees with this, declaring that both the grave and a person’s desirous eyes will never be satisfied. The root of this problem is looking for ultimate satisfaction in created things, when we can only truly find satisfaction in our creator.

Chapter 3: What All Our Desires Point To

All the good things we experience in life ultimately come from God, the source of all good. So when we enjoy the good things God gives us, in a way, we’re enjoying God. If we were to flip over the meaning of the 10th Commandment, we might simply say, “Desire your own stuff.” Or, enjoy and be content with what God gives you. At a deeper level, the command also invites us to be curious about our desires, allowing them to take us on a journey beyond what we think we desire into something greater, namely peace and security in God himself.