The Elevent Commandment

The Ten Commandments
There are 13 sentences in the accepted Jewish version of the Ten Commandments (17 in the Christian), yet it is difficult to ascertain with certainty from the text itself what comprises which commandments. There are 13 commandments to be found in the original, albeit translated, text. Their allocation to the Ten Commandments can be done in a variety of ways as there are different traditions. The prevailing tradition follows:
 
First Commandment (Exodus 20:2): I am the Lord Your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.  
Second Commandment (Exodus 20:3-6): You shall have no other gods beside Me. You shall not make for yourself any graven image, nor any manner of likeness, of any thing that is heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them, for I, the Lord Your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
Third Commandment (Exodus 20:7): You shall not take the name of the Lord Your God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain.  
Fourth Commandment (Exodus 20:8-11): Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath unto the Lord Your God, in it you shall not do any manner of work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your man-servant, nor your maid-servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.  
Fifth Commandment (Exodus 20:12): Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord God gives you.  
Sixth Commandment (Exodus 20:13): You shall not murder.  
Seventh Commandment (Exodus 20:13): You shall not commit adultery.
Eighth Commandment (Exodus 20:13): You shall not steal.
Ninth Commandment (Exodus 20:13): You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.  
Tenth Commandment (Exodus 20:14):You shall not covet your neighbor's house, nor his wife, his man-servant, his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbor's.

The first four commandments are about stealing. Thou shalt not steal the respect God demands. The fifth commandment demands respectful behavior towards one’s biological parents, do not steal their respect. The sixth commandment is also about stealing. Do not steal someone else’s future through murder. The seventh commandment demands one not steal sexual fidelity from someone else. The eighth commandment is not to steal physical property belonging to another. The ninth commandment is not to steal the truth. The tenth commandment is about pre-stealing, do not covet the items referenced in commandments 5 through 9 and you will not be in danger of breaking the other commandments.

God is treating us like the children we are by re-iterating what is desired in a variety of different ways, so the lesson will get learned. No stealing, it’s a sin. Why? God is smarter than the rest of us and he knows better, and as such not stealing will lead to harmonious relations between, spouses, families, neighbors, strangers, nations and the Creator.

An eleventh commandment might be added: thou shalt not spend other people’s money. Why? It’s stealing as well, just stealing covered in a legalistic façade. This commandment would do much to restrain the great child, government from its’ covetous and thieving ways, and in the process, do much to mitigate governmental mischief and misery in the modern world.