Deuteronomy 5:21

וְלֹא תַחְמֹד אֵשֶׁת רֵעֶךָ ס וְלֹא תִתְאַוֶּה בֵּית רֵעֶךָ שָׂדֵהוּ וְעַבְדּוֹ וַאֲמָתוֹ שׁוֹרוֹ וַחֲמֹרוֹ וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר לְרֵעֶֽךָ׃ ס

✦ Hebrew interlinear

Tap a word to see its entry

✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וְלֹ֥א תַחְמֹ֖ד אֵ֣שֶׁת רֵעֶ֑ךָ ס וְלֹ֨א תִתְאַוֶּ֜ה בֵּ֣ית רֵעֶ֗ךָ שָׂדֵ֜הוּ וְעַבְדּ֤וֹ וַאֲמָתוֹ֙ שׁוֹר֣וֹ וַחֲמֹר֔וֹ וְכֹ֖ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר לְרֵעֶֽךָ׃ ס

Greek (Septuagint)

Οὐκ ἐπιθυμήσεις τὴν γυναῖκα τοῦ πλησίον σου· οὐκ ἐπιθυμήσεις τὴν οἰκίαν τοῦ πλησίον σου οὔτε τὸν ἀγρόν αὐτοῦ οὔτε τὸν παῖδα αὐτοῦ οὔτε τὴν παιδίσκην αὐτοῦ, οὔτε τοῦ βοὸς αὐτοῦ οὔτε τοῦ ὑποζυγίου αὐτοῦ οὔτε παντὸς κτήνους αὐτοῦ, οὔτε ὅσα τῷ πλησίον σού ἐστιν.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Non concupisces uxorem proximi tui: non domum, non agrum, non servum, non ancillam, non bovem, non asinum, et universa quæ illius sunt.

Spanish

“No codiciarás la mujer de tu prójimo. Tampoco desearás la casa de tu prójimo, ni su campo, ni su siervo, ni su sierva, ni su buey, ni su asno, ni nada que sea de tu prójimo”.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

No codiciarás la mujer de tu prójimo, ni desearás la casa de tu prójimo, ni su tierra, ni su siervo, ni su sierva, ni su buey, ni su asno, ni ninguna cosa que sea de tu prójimo.

English

You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house or field, or his manservant or maidservant, or his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” Moses Intercedes for the People (Exodus 20:18–21; Hebrews 12:18–29)

✦ What the text says

Summary

Deuteronomy 5:21 prohibits two distinct but related mental/volitional acts toward a neighbor's possessions: coveting the neighbor's wife, and desiring the neighbor's house along with an enumerated list of his property (field, servants, ox, donkey, and anything else belonging to him).

Key words

tach.Mod ("you must covet", H2530A) — qal imperfect, second person masculine singular; governs specifically 'Eshet re'Ekha ("wife of your neighbor"), the first prohibited object.
tit.'a.Veh ("you must desire", H0183) — hithpael (reflexive stem) imperfect, second person masculine singular; introduces the second prohibition, governing beit re'Ekha ("house of your neighbor") and the list that follows.
re.'E.kha ("your neighbor", H7453 + H9021) — masculine singular noun in construct form, repeated three times (lines 5-6, 11-12, 30-31), each time marking possession by "your neighbor" of the item named.
'a.Sher ("that", H0834A) — relative particle introducing the final clause kol 'asher le-re'Ekha ("all that belongs to your neighbor"), a summary catch-all following the specific items.
le. ("[belongs] to", H9005) — preposition of possession used in the closing clause, distinct from the construct-chain possession (noun + noun) used for the earlier items.

What the text says

The verse is built on two verbs governing two separate strings of objects. The first verb, tach.Mod ("you must covet", H2530A), a qal imperfect, applies only to 'Eshet re'Ekha ("wife of your neighbor," H0802H + H7453 + H9021), a construct chain meaning literally "wife-of your-neighbor." This clause is set apart syntactically (marked by a paragraph break, ס, in the Masoretic text) from what follows.

The second verb, tit.'aVeh ("you must desire", H0183), is in the hithpael stem, a reflexive/intensive verbal form, and governs a longer chain of items: beit re'Ekha ("house of your neighbor"), followed by sadehu ("his field"), 'avdo ("his servant"), 'amato ("his female servant"), shoro ("his ox"), chamoro ("his donkey"), each attached to the previous by pronominal suffixes ("his") rather than repeating "of your neighbor" each time — the possession is carried grammatically by suffix rather than by a fresh construct phrase. The list culminates in a summary clause using the relative particle 'asher ("that", H0834A) plus the preposition le ("to/belonging to", H9005): kol 'asher le-re'Ekha ("all that belongs to your neighbor"), which grammatically differs from the construct chains used earlier — here possession is expressed analytically with a preposition rather than through direct construct linkage.

Differences between versions

The LXX uses a single verb, ἐπιθυμήσεις ("you shall desire/covet"), for both Hebrew verbs tach.Mod and tit.'aVeh, thus not preserving the Hebrew's distinction between the qal verb for the wife and the hithpael verb for the house and goods. The Vulgate similarly uses one verb, concupisces ("you shall covet"), for the entire verse, and represents the itemized list (field, servant, maidservant, ox, donkey) as a bare series of accusatives without repeating a possessive construction for each, unlike the Hebrew's use of a pronominal suffix "his" attached to each noun.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.