Exodus 20:17
לֹא תַחְמֹד בֵּית רֵעֶךָ לֹֽא־תַחְמֹד אֵשֶׁת רֵעֶךָ וְעַבְדּוֹ וַאֲמָתוֹ וְשׁוֹרוֹ וַחֲמֹרוֹ וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר לְרֵעֶֽךָ׃ פ
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✦ The same verse in five languages
לֹ֥א תַחְמֹ֖ד בֵּ֣ית רֵעֶ֑ךָ לֹֽא־תַחְמֹ֞ד אֵ֣שֶׁת רֵעֶ֗ךָ וְעַבְדּ֤וֹ וַאֲמָתוֹ֙ וְשׁוֹר֣וֹ וַחֲמֹר֔וֹ וְכֹ֖ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר לְרֵעֶֽךָ׃ פ
Oὐκ ἔπι· θυμήσεις τὴν γυναῖκα τοῦ πλησίον σου· οὐκ ἐπιθυμήσεις τὴν οἰκίαν τοῦ πλησίον σου οὔτε τὸν ἀγρὸν αὐτοῦ, οὔτε τὸν παῖδα αὐτοῦ ούτε 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 domum proximi tui, nec desiderabis uxorem ejus, non servum, non ancillam, non bovem, non asinum, nec omnia quæ illius sunt.
No codiciarás la casa de tu prójimo; tampoco codiciarás la esposa de tu prójimo, ni su esclavo, ni su esclava, ni su buey, ni su burro, ni ninguna otra cosa que le pertenezca”.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
No codiciarás la casa de tu prójimo, no codiciarás la mujer de tu prójimo, ni su siervo, ni su criada, ni su buey, ni su asno, ni cosa alguna de tu prójimo.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, or his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” Moses Comforts the People (Deuteronomy 5:22–33; Hebrews 12:18–29)
✦ What the text says
Summary
Exodus 20:17 prohibits chamad ("to covet", H2530A) directed at a series of things belonging to one's rea' ("neighbor", H7453): his house, his wife, his male and female servants, his ox and donkey, and anything else that is his. The prohibition is stated twice with the same verb, once for the house and once for the wife, followed by a list joined by "and."
Key words
- tachmod ("you must covet", H2530A) — qal imperfect, second person masculine singular; used twice, identically, governing both "house" and "wife" as objects of the same verbal action.
- beit ("house of", H1004B) — masculine singular construct, linking directly to the following noun re'ekha ("your neighbor") to form "house of your neighbor."
- 'eshet ("wife of", H0802H) — feminine singular construct, parallel in construction to beit, placing "wife" in the same syntactic slot as "house."
- re'ekha ("your neighbor", H7453 + H9021) — repeated five times in the verse (once per construct phrase), anchoring every listed item to the same possessor.
- kol 'asher le-re'ekha ("all that [belongs] to your neighbor", H3605 + H0834A + H9005) — a closing relative clause using the preposition le ("to/belonging to") rather than a construct noun, generalizing the list into a total category.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence is built as two parallel prohibitions using the identical verb tachmod (H2530A), each introduced by lo' ("not", H3808): one governing beit re'ekha ("house of your neighbor") and one governing 'eshet re'ekha ("wife of your neighbor"). After the second tachmod, the sentence shifts to a chain of items joined by ve- ("and", H9002) — servant, maidservant, ox, donkey — each in construct form with a third-person possessive suffix -o ("his", H9023), all still dependent grammatically on the second tachmod. The list closes with kol 'asher le-re'ekha, a relative clause that uses the preposition le instead of construct syntax, functioning as a summary category ("all that belongs to your neighbor") rather than another specific item.
Differences between versions
The LXX (Swete) reverses the order found in the Hebrew, placing "wife" (γυναῖκα) before "house" (οἰκίαν), and inserts an additional item, τὸν ἀγρὸν αὐτοῦ ("his field"), which has no corresponding word in the Hebrew list. The Vulgate uses two different Latin verbs — concupisces for the house and desiderabis for the wife — where the Hebrew repeats the same verb tachmod (H2530A) for both objects.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.