My friend, being a very convinced theist, got rather fired up reading my post regarding the bible verses. She sounded like she wanted to eat me up (the non-loving way). Fortunately, she stopped short of asking me to apologise unreservedly.

The part where i said Exodus (20:17) suggests that women are treated as property of men in those days are no baseless. You can see the full analysis of the ten commandments here.

Excerpt :
"Another problem with the commandment is the inclusion of “wife” alongside material possessions. There is no prohibition against coveting another’s “husband,” which suggests that the commandment was directly only at men. The inclusion of women alongside material possessions suggests that women were considered little more than property, an impression that is borne out by the rest of Hebrew scriptures.

It is worth noting, however, that the version of the Ten Commandments found in Deuteronomy and used by both Catholics and Lutherans separates out the wife from the rest of the household:

Neither shall you covet your neighbor’s wife. Neither shall you desire your neighbor’s house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

There is still no prohibition against coveting someone else’s husband and women remain in a subordinate position; nevertheless, wives are separated out into a different category with a different verb and this represents at least some modest improvement.

There is also a problem associated with the prohibition against coveting “his manservant” and “his maidservant.” Some modern translations word this as “servants” but that is dishonest because the original text is about owned slaves, not paid servants. Among the Hebrews as well as other cultures of the Near East, slavery was accepted and normal. Today it is not, but common listings of the Ten Commandments fail to take this into account.

A dominant interpretation of the Tenth Commandment today is that it refers not so much to mere coveting, but rather how such coveting can lead one to dispossess others of their possessions through fraud or violence. People see a relationship between this commandment and the text of Micah:

Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand. And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. (Micah 1:1-2)

None of the other commandments have anything to say about the social relationship between the rich and powerful and the poor and weak. Like every other society, the ancient Hebrews had their social and class divisions and there would have been problems with the powerful abusing their positions to get what they wanted from the weaker. Thus, this commandment has been treated as a condemnation of behavior which unjustly benefits oneself at the expense of others."