A primitive root meaning to desire, take pleasure in, covet. It can describe legitimate delight (Song 2:3 — 'I delight to sit in his shade') or sinful covetousness (Ex. 20:17 — 'You shall not covet'). The noun chemdat means 'what is desirable' or 'precious one.'
The tenth commandment — 'You shall not covet (chāmad)' — goes deeper than behavior; it targets desire itself. This is what makes the Law, as Paul argues in Romans 7:7-8, spiritually impossible to keep in one's own strength: one can control actions, but the sinful heart keeps generating illicit desires. Chāmad was the verb used in Genesis 3:6 — Eve 'saw that the tree was desirable for gaining wisdom' — connecting the original sin directly to disordered desire. Yet the same word describes the righteous delight in God's Word (Ps. 19:10 — 'more desirable than gold') and in Christ Himself (Song 2:3). The antidote to sinful chāmad is not the suppression of desire but its redirection — to God, to His Word, to His Son. Augustine put it perfectly: 'Our heart is restless until it rests in Thee.'