You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. Exodus 20:17
We are used to thinking of the 10 commandments in the category which scholars call “moral law.” By this is meant that they are universal to all of humanity and thus universally applicable as a moral code. Whatever merits this might have, the ancient Hebrews understood that these 10 commandments were given explicitly to them as a nation under covenant. True, as a royal priesthood, Israel was to demonstrate the righteousness of their God to the nations by living by these laws. For them, these laws would better be understood as “criminal law” in the context of their culture, for breaking any of them meant drastic punishment.
All except the last two commandments ─ coveting. The Catholic Church separates “coveting” into a) concupiscence, that is the sins of the flesh, and b) disordered desires over the passing things of this life. Coveting is by its very nature not punishable by law, for it is an interior motion of the heart. However, we see that without coveting, whether concupiscence or inordinate desire for things, the four previous crimes of murder, adultery, stealing, and bearing false witness cannot happen. Concluding the Ten commandments with prohibition against coveting emphatically impresses on the mind that it is, indeed, the sin behind the other “second tablet” crimes against our fellow humans. Looking at the ten as a whole, if we keep the first, having no other gods before YHWH (loving God), and the last, not coveting (loving neighbor), then all the commandments in between will fall into place.
Israel’s history displays examples of this disease of coveting in key passages of Old Testament history. Achan confesses that he coveted the beautiful garment, silver and gold, which led to his thievery (Josh. 7:21). Because the covenantal community was considered a whole “organism,” one individual’s sin was considered a national crime. The debauched inhabitants of Gibeah coveted (lust for) the Levite, but he threw out his concubine instead, whom they murdered (Judges 19-21). This in turn spurred on the unholy fratricide between Benjamin and the other tribes, and Israel became a murderous nation. David’s adultery with Bathsheba is the parade example of coveting turning to the double crime of adultery and murder (II Sam. 11). Because David was King, his crime especially was followed by national consequences. Finally, we find King Ahab incapacitated with covetousness over Naboth’s orchard, which Naboth could not sell to him because the property inviolably belonged to his family. Jezebel arranges for his murder through false witnesses (I Kings 21). One scholar, David Noel Freedman, believes that the whole of Israel’s history from the moment the 10 commandments were given in Exodus to the fall of Israel in the book of Kings, chronicles a progression of breaking each of the commandments; when the last one, the ninth, was broken, it was only a matter of time when the kingdom would fall (see resources below).
Be this as it may be, coveting with its companions of greed and lust is the unseen, interior origin of all crime. Hence these concluding covet commandments stand last of all as the emphatic warning that keeping the law is a matter of the heart. Jesus tells us nothing new when He teaches us that adultery happens in the heart, for these great coveting commandments interiorize the previous four.
One will not be punished if one covets his neighbor’s wife, but if one does, he stands before God as if actually committing the act of adultery. This was clear as day in the law for the Old Testament believer. What was new about Jesus and His teaching was that He actually lived the law to perfection, and in fact was the law incarnate, whereas Israel as a nation failed to live up to the law that was external to them. The amazing good news of the Gospel is that Jesus now mysteriously dwells within the hearts of His people like Yahweh dwelt in the most holy place of the Temple in Old Testament times. This places the law of God in the most interior depths of our being, enabling us to aspire to Christ’s perfection, which indeed, Jesus expects us to do. So St. Augustine:
The law said, “You shall not covet,” in order that, when we find ourselves lying in this diseased state, we might seek the medicine of grace. By that commandment [we might] know both in what direction our endeavors should aim as we advance in our present mortal condition and to what height it is possible to reach in future immortality. For unless perfection could somewhere be attained, this commandment would never have been given to us.
On Marriage and concupiscence.
Takeaway: The great concluding laws forbidding covetousness, both of concupiscence (of the flesh) and disordered desire for things, makes it clear that keeping the law is not only an external act, or observance, but an interior matter of right attitude and the heart.
Questions: We see that with each of the laws God is reintroducing the action (works) and attitude (faith, purity of heart) of paradise lost. 1) As we conclude the Ten Commandments, do you have a new appreciation of the law? Explain.
Resources Used:
ACCS, vol. III, p. 108
Freedman, D. N. The Nine Commandments: Uncovering a Hidden Pattern of Crime and Punishment in the Hebrew Bible. Doubleday, 2000.