The tenth: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house: you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor male nor female slave, nor ox nor donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s” (Exodus 20:14). What, exactly, is coveting? It is an intense desire for something, one that might even lead to scheming to acquire it.
I am reminded of the difference between envy and jealousy. Envy is when I admire something that someone else has and want one for myself. Jealousy is when I desire something someone else has and what THAT ONE for myself. It is jealousy, then, that leads to coveting. Coveting can lead to taking away from another. It therefore represents a breakdown of social order.In our society, envy and jealousy are often confused; both are denigrated. But there is something positive to envy—it can inspire us to achieve and acquire. “It is the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered,” Aeschylus wrote (Agamemnon i. 832). Envy is the desire that propels us forward, into creating for ourselves rather than into taking away from others. Envy can spark, while jealousy can burn.
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