Deuteronomy 5:21

Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour's.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(21) His field.—These words are not found in Exodus 20. The children of Israel had now become, or were just about to become, landowners; hence the addition is appropriate in this place. There is also another slight verbal alteration. One word only is used for “covet” in Exodus 20:17; here two are employed. The idea of the one is to “delight in,” and the other to “lust after.”

Benson Commentary

Deuteronomy 5:21. Neither shalt thou covet any thing, that is thy neighbour’s — The plain meaning of this is, Thou shalt not desire any thing that is not thy own, any thing which thou hast not. Indeed, why shouldest thou? God hath given thee whatever tends to thy one end, holiness. Thou canst not deny it, without making him a liar; and when any thing else will tend thereto, he will give thee that also. There is, therefore, no room to desire any thing which thou hast not. Thou hast already every thing that is really good for thee; wouldest thou have more money, more pleasure, more praise still? Why, this is not good for thee. God has told thee so, by withholding it from thee. O give thyself up to his wise and gracious disposal!

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

5:6-22 There is some variation here from Ex 20 as between the Lord's prayer in Mt 6 and Lu 11. It is more necessary that we tie ourselves to the things, than to the words unalterably. The original reason for hallowing the sabbath, taken from God's resting from the work of creation on the seventh day, is not here mentioned. Though this ever remains in force, it is not the only reason. Here it is taken from Israel's deliverance out of Egypt; for that was typical of our redemption by Jesus Christ, in remembrance of which the Christian sabbath was to be observed. In the resurrection of Christ we were brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God, with a mighty hand, and an outstretched arm. How sweet is it to a soul truly distressed under the terrors of a broken law, to hear the mild and soul-reviving language of the gospel!

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The "field" is added to the list of objects specifically forbidden in the parallel passage Exodus 20:17. The addition seems very natural in one who was speaking with the partition of Canaan among his hearers directly in view.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21. Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's wife, … house, his field—An alteration is here made in the words (see Ex 20:17), but it is so slight ("wife" being put in the first clause and "house" in the second) that it would not have been worth while noticing it, except that the interchange proves, contrary to the opinion of some eminent critics, that these two objects are included in one and the same commandment.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

In Exo 20, the order is contrary, and thy neighbour’s house is put before his wife, whereby it is evident that Moses intended this but for one commandment, wherein the order of the words was an inconsiderable circumstance; for if this were two commandments, as some would have it, it would be altogether uncertain which is the ninth, and which the tenth commandment, seeing the one is first, Exo 20, and the other here.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's wife,.... Here a neighbour's wife is put before his house, different from Exodus 20:17 and "his field" is added, which with what follows take in everything that is a man's property; and which is not to be desired or coveted in an unlawful manner by another, and much less should any means be made use of to deprive him of it; but "lust" is the thing intended and prohibited, be it after what it may, which is another man's: see Matthew 5:28, of a man's field, see Isaiah 5:8.

Geneva Study Bible

Neither shalt {h} thou desire thy neighbour's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour's house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or any thing that is thy neighbour's.

(h) He not only speaks of that resolute will, but that there should be no motion or affection.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

21. The Tenth Commandment, carrying the Law from the sphere of action into that of thought and feeling, and therefore not superfluous even in so brief a summary of the Law nor after the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Commandments (cp. Calvin, in loco). How necessary the Commandment is not merely as an addition to these Commandments, but as focussing the spirit of them all is clear from the experience of St Paul, who selects the Tenth Commandment to illustrate the power of the whole Law: Romans 7:7-8; Romans cf.14, the law is spiritual. The nature of this Commandment renders it peculiarly susceptible of expansion (as the Sixth to the Ninth are not); details naturally offer themselves under so general a precept; and here the deuteronomists had the opportunity which they loved to use, and were upon their own ground? cp. Deuteronomy 7:25, where the desire for, as well as the actual appropriation of, unlawful silver and gold is forbidden. The two expanded editions of the Decalogue here exhibit the most interesting of the differences which distinguish them. Exodus 20:17, preserving the original form of the Commandment, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, and repeating the verb, simply details, as upon the same level, the constituents of the house: wife, slaves, animals, all that is thy neighbour’s. But this later edition in Deut. makes among these a fundamental distinction of far-reaching moral consequence; takes the wife first in a class by herself, then—under another verb, as if to emphasise the difference—gives the rest together; and, with the peculiar regard which D has for the rural life, adds to them the field of thy neighbour.

covet] the same Heb. verb as in Exodus 20:17. The rendering of the revisers is not a happy one, because though the English covet originally meant inordinate desire, it is now generally used with other objects than wife. The A.V. desire literally renders the Heb. verb, the meaning of which is neutral and has to be qualified by its object. In Exodus 34:24 of dishonest desire for land; in Deuteronomy 7:25 for silver and gold (cp. Joshua 7:21, JE); Micah 2:2 (cp. Ahab and Naboth’s vineyard) for fields and houses. But in Proverbs 6:25 it signifies lust after the beauty of women. So it should be rendered here, and so some of the older Eng. Versions render it. Similarly the ἐπιθυμεῖν of the LXX, always so in Greek when a person is the object; cp. Matthew 5:28. Kautzsch: ‘verlangen tragen,’ and in Joshua 7:21, ‘da gelüstete mich nach.’

thy neighbour’s wife] The way in which (in contrast to Ex.) the wife is placed here first, in a class by herself, may be compared with other laws of D which also seek the elevation of woman, Deuteronomy 21:10-14, Deuteronomy 23:13 ff., Deuteronomy 24:1 ff.

desire] Instead of the repetition in Ex. of the original verb, another verb is employed here of stronger meaning but apparently intended as only ‘a rhetorical variation’ (Driver) rather than as a climax. Of longing for water, 2 Samuel 3:15; for dainties, Proverbs 23:3.

field] The noun sadeh or sadai, which in Heb. poetry (e.g. Deuteronomy 32:13; Jdg 5:4) appears to have the meaning of mountain that it has in Assyrian, and which in earlier Heb. prose (JE) means pasture ground (so too in D, Deuteronomy 11:15 and probably in Deuteronomy 21:1, contrasted with city, Deuteronomy 22:25; Deuteronomy 22:27) uncultivated and the home of wild beasts (= beasts of the field), is to be taken here in its later sense of cultivated ground, and that as private property. It is so used by the prophets of the 8th cent.: Isaiah 5:8; Micah 2:2; Micah 2:4. See the present writer’s Jerusalem, i. 291.

Deuteronomy 5:21

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

In vv. 6-21, the ten covenant words are repeated from Exodus 20, with only a few variations, which have already been discussed in connection with the exposition of the decalogue at Exodus 20:1-14. - In Deuteronomy 5:22-33, Moses expounds still further the short account in Exodus 20:18-21, viz., that after the people had heard the ten covenant words, in their alarm at the awful phenomena in which the Lord revealed His glory, they entreated him to stand between as mediator, that God Himself might not speak to them any further, and that they might not die, and then promised that they would hearken to all that the Lord should speak to him (Exodus 20:23 -31). His purpose in doing so was to link on the exhortation in vv. 32, 33, to keep all the commandments of the Lord and do them, which paves the way for passing to the exposition of the law which follows. "A great voice" (Exodus 20:22) is an adverbial accusative, signifying "with a great voice" (cf. Ges. 118, 3). "And He added no more:" as in Numbers 11:25. God spoken the ten words directly to the people, and then no more; i.e., everything further He addressed to Moses alone, and through his mediation to the people. As mediator He gave him the two tables of stone, upon which He had written the decalogue (cf. Exodus 31:18). This statement somewhat forestalls the historical course; and in Deuteronomy 9:10-11, it is repeated again in its proper historical connection.