You shall not covet uses a word that means to crave something that belongs to someone else. It is a strong word suggesting an attitude or emotion that often leads to an attempt to acquire what is coveted. (The same word is used in Deut 5.21 in reference to the neighbor’s wife, but a different word, meaning simply to desire, is used there in reference to the other things owned by one’s neighbor.) The various objects of coveting are listed, beginning with your neighbor’s house. This refers to another man’s “household” (Revised English Bible), or all of his possessions.

It is not clear why you shall not covet is repeated in this verse, but what follows the second statement lists in detail what is probably implied in the word house. Roman Catholics, Anglicans, and Lutherans, however, understand this to be a separate commandment. (See the introduction above.) Wife is literally “woman.” Manservant and maidservant are two separate words that distinguish between a male and a female slave. Good News Translation combines them into “slaves,” which is possible if it is clear that both sexes are included.

The word for ox means a full-grown bull or steer, but here it would certainly include the female as well, so Good News Translation has “cattle.” The ass was the same as the “donkey.” (See the comment at 9.3.) Or anything that is your neighbor’s is literally “and all that is to your neighbor.” This makes clear that the prohibition includes “anything else” that belongs to him.

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .