Deuteronomy 23. Various Laws

Those Excluded from the Assembly

“No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord.

² “No one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord.

³ “No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever, ⁴ because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. ⁵ But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam; instead the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you. ⁶ You shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever.

⁷ “You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a sojourner in his land. ⁸ Children born to them in the third generation may enter the assembly of the Lord.

• Those Excluded From the Assembly (probably means leadership)
  • Men with crushed genitals/castrated
    • Guzik says  “To whatever extent eunuchs were excluded, it was because God’s covenant with Israel was vitally connected with the idea of the seed, and emasculation is a “crime” against the seed of man. Additionally, most eunuchs were made to be so in pagan ceremonies where they, in their emasculated condition, were dedicated to pagan gods.” https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/deuteronomy-23/
  • Children of forbidden unions
    • Children born outside of marriage? Incest?
  • Ammonites and Moabites (remember Balaam)
    • These came from Moab and Ammon (Lot’s sons with his daughters) see Genesis 19
    • Interestingly, Ruth was a Moabite woman who became the great-grandmother of King David (Ruth 4:17).
    • Why were Ammonites and Moabites permanently excluded, but Edomites and Egyptians could join after a few generations?
  • Edomites and Egyptians until the third generation
• Who constituted as the ‘assembly of the Lord’?

Uncleanness in the Camp

⁹ “When you are encamped against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every evil thing.

¹⁰ “If any man among you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he shall go outside the camp. He shall not come inside the camp, ¹¹ but when evening comes, he shall bathe himself in water, and as the sun sets, he may come inside the camp.

¹² “You shall have a place outside the camp, and you shall go out to it. ¹³ And you shall have a trowel with your tools, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up your excrement. ¹⁴ Because the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.

• Cleanliness
  • Soldiers must avoid anything unclean when at war.
  • Bodily discharges make someone unclean until evening (with washing).
  • Human waste must be buried outside the camp

Miscellaneous Laws

¹⁵ “You shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you. ¹⁶ He shall dwell with you, in your midst, in the place that he shall choose within one of your towns, wherever it suits him. You shall not wrong him.

• Runaway slaves seeking refuge must not be returned to their masters but allowed to live freely in Israel.

¹⁷ “None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, and none of the sons of Israel shall be a cult prostitute. ¹⁸ You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog into the house of the Lord your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.

• No prostitutes (male or female) or money from prostitution brought to house of the Lord

¹⁹ “You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest. ²⁰ You may charge a foreigner interest, but you may not charge your brother interest, that the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

• Israelites must not charge interest to fellow Israelites, but may charge foreigners.

²¹ “If you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin. ²² But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin. ²³ You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth.

• Don’t fail to keep a vow to God

²⁴ “If you go into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in your bag. ²⁵ If you go into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.

• You can eat from a neighbor’s vineyard or grain field when passing through, but not take extra to store or profit from.