Deuteronomy 5:21 tells the people of Israel not to covet, meaning not to crave or scheme to get what belongs to someone else, whether that is a neighbor’s spouse, home, land, servants, or animals. The command reaches past outward theft and asks God’s people to keep their inner longings in check. Moses speaks these words to the assembled Israelites on the edge of the promised land, repeating the Ten Commandments he received at Sinai.
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. Neither shall you desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Deuteronomy 5:21 (WEB)
What Deuteronomy 5:21 Means
The verse begins with “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.” Coveting here is more than noticing something attractive. It is wanting that thing so much that you begin to plan how to have it, even if the wanting never becomes an action. The commandment names the spouse first, because marriage is the most personal of the neighbor’s possessions and the one most easily damaged by desire.
The rest of the verse widens the list: house, field, male and female servants, ox, donkey, and “anything that is your neighbor’s.” The phrase at the end sweeps everything in, so no possession is left as a loophole. What the verse does not promise is that you will never feel a pang of envy. It addresses the desire that takes hold and turns into a plan, and it asks you to keep that desire from settling in.
The Context of Deuteronomy 5:21
Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Torah, presented as a series of speeches by Moses as Israel prepares to enter Canaan. Traditionally Moses is named as its author, and the audience is the new generation who were children or not yet born when the law was first given at Horeb. Moses is reminding them of what God has said, so that they will live faithfully once they settle in the land.
Verse 21 sits in a list with the commands against adultery, theft, and false testimony in verses 18 through 20. Read in that company, coveting is the inward root that often produces those outward wrongs. Verses 22 through 24 then describe how the words were spoken from the fire and cloud on the mountain and how the people responded in awe. The verse is therefore part of a covenant charter given by a God who has shown his holiness, which gives its demands a weight they would not carry on their own.
Key Phrases in Deuteronomy 5:21
Philippians 4:11
Not that I speak because of lack, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content in it.
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Paul writes that he has learned to be content in every situation, which is the inward freedom that makes coveting unnecessary. Where Deuteronomy 5:21 forbids the grasping desire, this verse describes the settled heart that no longer needs what belongs to others.
Exodus 20:17
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
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This is the original form of the commandment as given at Sinai. Reading it beside Deuteronomy 5:21 shows that Moses is repeating God’s own words, and it helps you see the continuity between the first giving of the law and the later reminder to the next generation.
A Short Prayer From Deuteronomy 5:21
Lord, you see the wants that rise in my heart when I compare my life with the lives of others. Some days I feel the pull to grasp what belongs to someone else, and I ask you to loosen that grip. Teach me to rejoice in the good you have given me and to trust that you know what I truly need. Guard my heart from envy, and help me to bless the people around me instead of wishing their blessings were mine. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
