But the cause and need of this commandment is that God well knows that
the world is evil, and that this life has much unhappiness; therefore
He has placed this and the other commandments between the good and the
evil. Now, as there are many assaults upon all commandments, so it
happens also in this commandment that we must live among many people
who do us harm, so that we have cause to be hostile to them.

As when your neighbor sees that you have a better house and home [a
larger family and more fertile fields], greater possessions and fortune
from God than he, he is sulky, envies you, and speaks no good of you.

Thus by the devil's incitement you will get many enemies who cannot
bear to see you have any good, either bodily or spiritual. When we see
such people, our hearts, in turn, would rage and bleed and take
vengeance. Then there arise cursing and blows, from which follow
finally misery and murder. Here, now, God like a kind father steps in
ahead of Us, interposes and wishes to have the quarrel settled, that no
misfortune come of it, nor one destroy another. And briefly He would
hereby protect, set free, and keep in peace every one against the crime
and violence of every one else; and would have this commandment placed
as a wall, fortress, and refuge about our neighbor, that we do him no
hurt nor harm in his body.

Thus this commandment aims at this, that no one offend his neighbor on
account of any evil deed, even though he have fully deserved it. For
where murder is forbidden, all cause also is forbidden whence murder
may originate. For many a one, although he does not kill, yet curses
and utters a wish, which would stop a person from running far if it
were to strike him in the neck [makes imprecations, which if fulfilled
with respect to any one, he would not live long]. Now since this