Footnote 6 – The Nine Commandments

The full text reads as follows:

“You shall not desire [or covet] your neighbor’s house. You shall not desire your neighbor’s wife, his man or maidservant, his ox or his ass, or anything at all that belongs to your neighbor” (Exodus 20:17).

The version in Deuteronomy 5:21(5:18 in Hebrew) differs slightly from the version in Exodus. In Exodus, the neighbor’s house comes before the neighbor’s wife; in Deuteronomy the order is reversed. In addition, in Exodus the word for desire or covet (tahmod) is repeated; in Deuteronomy, tahmod is used the first time, but a synonym, titawweh, is used for desire or covet the second time the concept is referred to.