>>>>Maybe it's not in vain. Serves several purposes at once - conveys the urgency to the listener, helps the speaker utter something fast without thinking, and at the same time they may ease up a bit after the utterance.
>>>
>>>A colleague at work got the Ten Commandments a bit mixed up: "Thou shalt not desire thine neighbors wife in vain".
>>
>>"and she's the only neighbor's wife and thou shalt not have other neighbor's wives but her"?
>
>"...other neighbors' wives..."

I actually thought about the other neighbor who had too many wives to take care of them all, but you're right, the rest of the neighborhood shouldn't be neglected.