325. The Ninth and Tenth Commandments

You Are Not to Covet Your Neighbor's Household;

You Are Not to Covet Your Neighbor's Wife

or His Servant or His Maid or His Ox or His Donkey

or Anything That Is Your Neighbor's

In the catechism that is circulated these days, these have been divided into two commandments. One of them is the ninth commandment: "You are not to covet your neighbor's household. " The other is the tenth: "You are not to covet your neighbor's wife or his servant or his maid or his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbor's. " Because these two commandments are united and form just a single verse in Exodus 20:17 and in Deuteronomy 5:21, I have taken them up together. It is not my intention, however, to connect them into one commandment. I want to keep them distinguished into two commandments as they have been, since all the commandments are referred to as the ten words (Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 4:13; 10:4).