This is the eighth commandment: "Be not thief, nor the accomplice
or companion of thieves, that your children may not become
thieves." As a penalty for robbery and theft famine will come upon
the world. [231] God may forgive idolatry, but never theft, and He
is always ready to listen to complaints against forgers and robbers.
[232]

The ninth commandment reads: "O My people of Israel, bear not
false witness against your companions, for in punishment for this
the clouds will scatter, so that there may be no rain, and famine
will ensue owing to drought." God is particularly severe with a
false witness because falsehood is the one quality that God did not
create, but is something that men themselves produces. [233]

The content of the tenth commandment is: "O My people Israel,
covet not the possessions of your neighbors, for owing to this sin
will the government take their possessions from the people, so that
even the wealthiest will become poor and will have to go into
exile." [234] The tenth commandment is directed against a sin that
sometimes leads to a trespassing of all the Ten Commandments. If
a man covets his neighbor's wife and commits adultery, he neglects
the first commandment: "I am the Eternal, thy God," for he
commits his crime in the dark and thinks that none sees him, not
even the Lord, whose eyes float over all the world, and see good as
well as evil. He oversteps the second commandment: "Thou shalt
not have strange gods besides Me..., I am a jealous God," who is
wroth against faithlessness, whether toward Me, or toward men.
He breaks the third commandment: "Thou shalt not take the name
of the Lord in vain," for he swears he has not committed adultery,