Deuteronomy 23-25
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 23
1 A man shall not marry his father’s wife,[a] nor shall he dishonor his father’s bed.(A)
Membership in the Assembly. 2 [b]No one whose testicles have been crushed or whose penis has been cut off may come into the assembly of the Lord.(B) 3 No one born of an illicit union may come into the assembly of the Lord, nor any descendant of such even to the tenth generation may come into the assembly of the Lord.(C) 4 (D)No Ammonite or Moabite may ever come into the assembly of the Lord, nor may any of their descendants even to the tenth generation come into the assembly of the Lord, 5 because they would not come to meet you with food and water on your journey after you left Egypt, and because they hired Balaam, son of Beor, from Pethor in Aram Naharaim, to curse you. 6 The Lord, your God, would not listen to Balaam but turned his curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord, your God, loves you. 7 Never seek their welfare or prosperity as long as you live.(E) 8 (F)Do not abhor the Edomite: he is your brother. Do not abhor the Egyptian: you were a resident alien in his country. 9 Children born to them may come into the assembly of the Lord in the third generation.
Cleanliness in Camp. 10 When in camp during an expedition against your enemies, you shall keep yourselves from anything bad. 11 (G)If one of you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he shall go outside the camp; he shall not come back into the camp. 12 Toward evening, he shall bathe in water; then, when the sun has set, he may come back into the camp. 13 Outside the camp you shall have a place set aside where you shall go. 14 You shall keep a trowel in your equipment and, when you go outside to relieve yourself, you shall dig a hole with it and then cover up your excrement. 15 Since the Lord, your God, journeys along in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to give your enemies over to you, your camp must be holy, so that he does not see anything indecent in your midst and turn away from you.(H)
Various Precepts. 16 (I)You shall not hand over to their master any slaves who have taken refuge with you from their master. 17 Let them live among you in any place they choose, in any one of your communities[c] that seems good to them. Do not oppress them.
18 There shall be no temple prostitute[d] among the Israelite women, nor a temple prostitute among the Israelite men.(J) 19 You shall not offer a prostitute’s fee or a dog’s pay[e] as any kind of votive offering in the house of the Lord, your God; both these things are an abomination to the Lord, your God.(K)
20 (L)You shall not demand interest from your kindred on a loan of money or of food or of anything else which is loaned. 21 From a foreigner you may demand interest, but you may not demand interest from your kindred, so that the Lord, your God, may bless you in all your undertakings on the land you are to enter and possess.
22 (M)When you make a vow to the Lord, your God, you shall not delay in fulfilling it; for the Lord, your God, will surely require it of you and you will be held guilty. 23 Should you refrain from making a vow, you will not be held guilty. 24 But whatever your tongue utters you must be careful to do, just as you freely vowed to the Lord, your God, with your own mouth.
25 When you go through your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you wish, until you are satisfied, but do not put them in your basket. 26 When you go through your neighbor’s grainfield, you may pluck some of the ears with your hand, but do not put a sickle to your neighbor’s grain.
Chapter 24
Marriage Legislation.[f] 1 (N)When a man, after marrying a woman, is later displeased with her because he finds in her something indecent, and he writes out a bill of divorce and hands it to her, thus dismissing her from his house, 2 if on leaving his house she goes and becomes the wife of another man, 3 and the second husband, too, comes to dislike her and he writes out a bill of divorce and hands it to her, thus dismissing her from his house, or if this second man who has married her dies, 4 then her former husband, who dismissed her, may not again take her as his wife after she has become defiled. That would be an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring such guilt upon the land the Lord, your God, is giving you as a heritage.(O)
5 (P)When a man is newly wed, he shall not go out on a military expedition, nor shall any duty be imposed on him. He shall be exempt for one year for the sake of his family, to bring joy to the wife he has married.
Pledges and Kidnappings. 6 [g]No one shall take a hand mill or even its upper stone as a pledge for debt, for that would be taking as a pledge the debtor’s life.
7 If anyone is caught kidnapping a fellow Israelite, enslaving or selling the victim, that kidnapper shall be put to death.(Q) Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst.
Skin Diseases. 8 (R)In an attack of scaly infection[h] you shall be careful to observe exactly and to carry out all the instructions the levitical priests give you, as I have commanded them: observe them carefully. 9 (S)Remember what the Lord, your God, did to Miriam on the journey after you left Egypt.
Loans and Wages. 10 When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, you shall not enter the neighbor’s house to receive the pledge, 11 but shall wait outside until the person to whom you are making the loan brings the pledge outside to you. 12 If the person is poor, you shall not sleep in the pledged garment, 13 but shall definitely return it at sunset, so that your neighbor may sleep in the garment(T) and bless you. That will be your justice before the Lord, your God.
14 (U)You shall not exploit a poor and needy hired servant, whether one of your own kindred or one of the resident aliens who live in your land, within your gates.(V) 15 On each day you shall pay the servant’s wages before the sun goes down, since the servant is poor and is counting on them. Otherwise the servant will cry to the Lord against you, and you will be held guilty.(W)
Individual Responsibility. 16 Parents shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their parents; only for one’s own crime shall a person be put to death.(X)
Rights of the Unprotected. 17 (Y)You shall not deprive the resident alien or the orphan of justice, nor take the clothing of a widow as pledge. 18 For, remember, you were slaves in Egypt, and the Lord, your God, redeemed you from there; that is why I command you to do this.
19 (Z)When you reap the harvest in your field and overlook a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; let it be for the resident alien, the orphan, and the widow, so that the Lord, your God, may bless you in all your undertakings. 20 When you knock down the fruit of your olive trees, you shall not go over the branches a second time; let what remains be for the resident alien, the orphan, and the widow. 21 When you pick your grapes, you shall not go over the vineyard a second time; let what remains be for the resident alien, the orphan, and the widow. 22 For remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt; that is why I command you to do this.
Chapter 25
Limits on Punishments. 1 When there is a dispute and the parties draw near for judgment, and a decision is given, declaring one party in the right and the other in the wrong, 2 if the one in the wrong deserves whipping, the judge shall have him lie down and in the presence of the judge receive the number of lashes the crime warrants. 3 Forty lashes[i] may be given, but no more;(AA) or else, if more lashes are added to these many blows, your brother will be degraded in your sight.
Treatment of Oxen.[j] 4 You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out grain.(AB)
Levirate Marriage. 5 (AC)When brothers live together[k] and one of them dies without a son, the widow of the deceased shall not marry anyone outside the family; but her husband’s brother shall come to her, marrying her and performing the duty of a brother-in-law.(AD) 6 The firstborn son she bears shall continue the name of the deceased brother, that his name may not be blotted out from Israel. 7 But if a man does not want to marry his brother’s wife, she shall go up to the elders at the gate and say, “My brother-in-law refuses to perpetuate his brother’s name in Israel and does not intend to perform his duty toward me.” 8 Thereupon the elders of his city shall summon him and speak to him. If he persists in saying, “I do not want to marry her,” 9 [l]his sister-in-law, in the presence of the elders, shall go up to him and strip his sandal from his foot and spit in his face, declaring, “This is how one should be treated who will not build up his brother’s family!” 10 And his name shall be called in Israel, “the house of the man stripped of his sandal.”
Various Precepts. 11 When two men are fighting and the wife of one intervenes to save her husband from the blows of his opponent, if she stretches out her hand and seizes the latter by his genitals, 12 you shall chop off her hand; show no pity.
13 (AE)You shall not keep two differing weights in your bag, one heavy and the other light; 14 nor shall you keep two different ephahs[m] in your house, one large and the other small. 15 But use a full and just weight, a full and just ephah, so that you may have a long life on the land the Lord, your God, is giving you. 16 For everyone who does these things, everyone who does what is dishonest, is an abomination to the Lord, your God.(AF)
17 [n](AG)Bear in mind what Amalek did to you on the journey after you left Egypt, 18 how he surprised you along the way, weak and weary as you were, and struck down at the rear all those who lagged behind; he did not fear God. 19 Therefore, when the Lord, your God, gives you rest from all your enemies round about in the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you to possess as a heritage, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the heavens. Do not forget!
Footnotes
- 23:1 Father’s wife: stepmother.
- 23:2 Exclusion of an emasculated male may have had to do with association of emasculation with the practices of other peoples, or it may have been rejection of someone with a significant blemish who was thus not suitable for participation in the sacral assembly.
- 23:17 In any one of your communities: from this it would seem that the slave in question is a fugitive from a foreign country.
- 23:18–19 Temple prostitute: Heb. qedesha, lit., “holy one,” a title of the goddess of fertility. The role or function of the qedesha is debated; some see this as simply a term for a prostitute (Heb. zona). Others see it as designating a cultic role but not necessarily one involving sexual activity. The evidence is insufficient to give a final answer.
- 23:19 Dog’s pay: “dog” is a derogatory term for a male temple prostitute.
- 24:1–4 This law is directly concerned only with forbidding a divorced man from remarrying his former wife, and indirectly with checking hasty divorces, by demanding sufficient cause and certain legal formalities. Divorce itself is taken for granted and tolerated as an existing custom whose potential evils this law seeks to lessen. Cf. 22:19, 29; Mal 2:14–16. Something indecent: a rather indefinite phrase, meaning perhaps “immodest conduct,” but possibly including any kind of objectionable conduct. By New Testament times Jewish opinion differed concerning what was sufficient ground for divorce; cf. Mt 19:3.
- 24:6 Since the Israelites ground their grain into flour only in sufficient quantity for their current need, to deprive a debtor of his hand mill was equivalent to condemning him to starvation.
- 24:8 Scaly infection: the Hebrew word seems to have to do with one or more skin diseases that produce scales, such as psoriasis. Its precise meaning is uncertain. See note on Lv 13:1–14:57.
- 25:3 Forty lashes: while the punishment is severe, the law seeks to limit it from being overly harsh and inhumane. Later Jewish practice limited the number to thirty-nine; cf. 2 Cor 11:24.
- 25:4 This is comparable in spirit to 22:6–7; Israelites are not to be grasping and calculating. St. Paul argues from this verse that laborers have the right to live on the fruits of their labor; cf. 1 Cor 9:9; 1 Tm 5:18.
- 25:5 When brothers live together: when relatives of the same clan, though married, hold their property in common. It was only in this case that the present law was to be observed, since one of its purposes was to keep the property of the deceased within the same clan. Such a marriage of a widow with her brother-in-law is known as a “levirate” marriage from the Latin word levir, meaning “a husband’s brother.”
- 25:9–10 The penalty decreed for a man who refuses to comply with this law of family loyalty is public disgrace; the widow is to spit in his face. Some commentators connect this symbolic act with the ceremony mentioned in Ru 4:7, 8.
- 25:14 Ephahs: see note on Is 5:10.
- 25:17–19 This attack on Israel by Amalek is not mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament, although it probably was connected with the battle mentioned in Ex 17:8. A campaign against Amalek was carried out by Saul; cf. 1 Sm 15.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.