* Exodus v, 3.
** Samuel xvi, 1, 2.
*** Hosea i, 2.
**** Deuteronomy xxi, 10-14.
v. Numbers xxxi, 18.
Such texts show how indifferent the bible is to what we understand by morality.
As to coveting: The whole of the biblical instructions was nothing more than a continuous encouragement to the Jews to covet everything that was their neighbors, from the jewelry of the Egyptian, to the lands, the cattle, the homes and daughters of the nations of the earth:
And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying... I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. *
For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. **
But it will be impossible to command people to rob and slay their neighbors, and to covet their homes and women, without at the same time, commanding them to hate them.
Ye shall not eat of anything that dieth of itself; thou shalt give it unto the stranger... that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto an alien. ***
Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother.... unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury. ****
Jesus improved upon the Old Testament by calling upon his followers to include in their hatred the members of their own family:
If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. (v)