Which is the Ninth Commandment?
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house.
What does this mean?
We should fear and love God that we may not craftily seek to get our neighbor's inheritance and house, nor obtain it by a show of right, but help and be of service to him in keeping it.
Which is the Tenth Commandment?
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is thy neighbors.
What does this mean?
We should fear and love God that we may not estrange, force, or entice away from our neighbor his wife, servants, or cattle, but urge them to stay and do their duty.
1. In the Ninth and the Tenth Commandment God forbids the same. Both commandments begin with the words: "Thou shalt not covet." To covet means eagerly and sinfully to desire and want what does not belong to us, but to some one else, to our neighbor. We are covetous when we envy our neighbor because of what he has, and want it for ourselves, and will not be satisfied until we have obtained it for ourselves. Remember the story of King Ahab and Naboth. Ahab, the wicked king of Israel, had a strong desire for a certain vineyard which was the property of Naboth. He offered to buy the vineyard, but Naboth did not want to sell it because he had inherited it from his fathers. Ahab kept on longing for the property of his neighbor and was not satisfied until Naboth was stoned to death, and he was able to take possession of the vineyard. 1 Kings 21,1-16. Here we learn what it is to covet our neighbor's property.
2. We are all, by nature, covetous. We all envy our neighbor and desire to obtain what belongs to him. God forbids such evil desires. Already in the Seventh Commandment we learned that our neighbor's property ought to be sacred to us because God Himself gave it to him. God does not want us even to covet it, to desire to obtain it against the will of our neighbor. We should, therefore, not craftily, with cunning and fraud, seek to get our neighbor's inheritance, what he inherited from his parents, or his house, nor try to obtain it by a show of right, in such a way that it appears right before men while it is wrong in the sight of God. We should not force or entice away our neighbor's wife, or servants, or cattle, or whatever belongs to him.