The Ninth and Tenth Commandments

These two commandments were addressed specifically to the Jews, but they concern us as well, at least in part. The Jews did not read them as prohibitions against sexual immorality or theft, since those sins were already covered by earlier commandments. In their view, they were keeping these commandments as long as they obeyed the outward letter of what was required or forbidden. God therefore added these two commandments to make clear that it was sinful and forbidden even to desire a neighbor's wife or property, or to scheme about how to acquire them. These commandments were especially necessary given the structure of Jewish society, where male and female servants were not free, as they are today, to work for wages on their own terms. In body and in everything they owned, they belonged to their master just as his livestock and other possessions did. Beyond that, any man had the legal right to dismiss his wife by issuing her a certificate of divorce and then take another woman as his wife. This created a real danger: if a man desired another man's wife, he might use that legal mechanism to put away his own wife, drive a wedge between his neighbor and his wife, and then take her for himself. People regarded this kind of behavior as no more shameful than a master dismissing his own servants or luring his neighbor's servants away.

For this reason, I say, the Jews rightly understood the commandment (even though its scope is broader) to mean that no one should covet or scheme to acquire another person's property for himself, whether that means a wife or servants, a house, fields, meadows, or livestock, whenever doing so would harm his neighbor, even if the means used appeared legitimate and carried the appearance of legal right. The seventh commandment, addressed earlier, forbids us from seizing or withholding another person's property when we have no rightful claim to it. Here, we are forbidden to go even further: we must not deprive our neighbor of anything that belongs to him, even when the world would consider our actions perfectly honorable and no one could accuse us of fraud or wrongdoing.

Human nature being what it is, none of us truly wants our neighbor to have as much as we do. Each person grabs what they can, with little thought for anyone else, yet we all want to be seen as decent and honorable. So we dress up our dishonesty to hide it. We devise clever schemes and sophisticated frauds, the kind that are invented daily with remarkable ingenuity, all wrapped in the appearance of legality. We even brag about our dishonesty with a kind of swagger, insisting it be called shrewdness and good planning rather than what it actually is. Lawyers and legal professionals are often glad to help with this. They twist and stretch the law to serve their clients' purposes, setting aside both justice and their neighbors' genuine needs. In short, the person most skilled at this game benefits most from the legal system, because, as lawyers themselves like to say: the law favors those who stay alert (Vigilantibus jura subveniunt).

This final commandment, then, is not aimed at those whom even the world recognizes as criminals. It is aimed at the most respectable people, those who want to be praised as honest and upright citizens who have never violated any of the earlier commandments. The Jews were a prime example of this class, and today it includes no small number of landed gentry, lords, and princes. Ordinary people belong to a somewhat lower category, the kind the seventh commandment primarily addresses; they don't bother dressing up their acquisitiveness in the language of honor and legal right.

These deceptions are most common in legal disputes aimed at separating a neighbor from his property and transferring it to ourselves. When an inheritance or piece of real estate becomes the subject of litigation, people seize on anything that looks like a legal right, dress it up, and parade it forward until they win the case and secure a title that no one can challenge. Another example is the man who desperately wants a castle, a town, an earldom, or some other great estate, and works every angle available to him, cultivating friendships and pulling every string, until the property is stripped from its owner and awarded to him, with the ruler confirming his title and lawful possession through official letters and a princely seal.

The same pattern plays out in ordinary commercial life. One person cleverly takes what belongs to another in a way that can't be undone, or harasses and pressures him at every turn until, driven by necessity, the victim falls into debt or financial distress. Unable to escape without taking a loss, he ends up surrendering half or more of what he owns. And yet no one considers this wrongful acquisition or theft. It gets called an honest purchase instead. Hence the old sayings: "First come, first served," and "Every man for himself, and let the others take what they can get." Who could possibly catalog all the creative ways people exploit others while keeping up the appearance of fair dealing? The world doesn't see anything wrong with these methods and refuses to acknowledge that the neighbor is being squeezed until he gives up what he can't afford to lose. And yet no one will admit to causing harm, even when it's plain that their methods and justifications are built on falsehood.

The same pattern played out in ancient times with regard to women as well. Men have always found ways to pursue another man's wife, whether acting directly or through an intermediary (and there were many schemes available), so that the husband was turned against his wife, or she was manipulated into opposing him until he had no choice but to renounce her and hand her over to the other man. This was undoubtedly common practice under the Mosaic law among the Jews, since we read even in the Gospels that King Herod took his own brother's wife while the brother was still alive, yet still expected to be seen as a good and upright man (Matt 14:3-4). Saint Mark confirms this as well (Mark 6:19). I trust we will not find such examples among us today, since the New Testament forbids the separation of those who are married, though it may still happen that a man pursues another's betrothed because she comes with a substantial dowry. What is far from uncommon among us, however, is one person luring away another's servant, whether male or female, by alienating their loyalty or winning them over with flattering words.

Whatever form these things take, we must keep this in mind: God does not want us to take anything that belongs to our neighbor, letting him suffer loss while we satisfy our own greed, even if we manage to hold onto what we've taken with our reputation intact before the world. It is a form of underhanded dishonesty, however cleverly disguised to avoid public exposure. You may walk away looking as though you've wronged no one, but you have still violated your neighbor's rights. And even if what you've done isn't called theft or fraud, it is still coveting what belongs to your neighbor; it is the desire to take it from him against his will, and to begrudge him what God gave him. The courts and everyone around you may have to recognize your claim, but God will not, because He sees the wickedness in your heart and the deception the world so readily accepts. Where an inch is given, the world will take a yard, and outright injustice and open violence are never far behind.

So let the plain meaning of this commandment stand: we are not to wish harm on our neighbor or help bring it about. We are to leave him in peaceful possession of what belongs to him and, beyond that, to actively promote his interests as we would want him to promote ours. We should understand this commandment as aimed especially at envy and miserable greed, since God's purpose is to cut out the root cause of the harm we do to our neighbors. He states it plainly: "Thou shalt not covet," and so on. Above all, He wants our hearts to be pure, even though we will never fully achieve this while we live on earth. This commandment, then, like all the others, remains a constant guide for us and stands as the measure of our righteousness before God.