Deuteronomy 23

Modern English Version

Exclusion From the Assembly

23 No one who is emasculated or has his male organ cut off may enter the assembly of the Lord.

² No one of illegitimate birth may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to his tenth generation no one related to him may enter the assembly of the Lord.

³ No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to their tenth generation they may not enter the assembly of the Lord forever, ⁴ because they refused you bread and water on the way, when you came from out of Egypt and because they hired Balaam, the son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopotamia, against you to curse you. ⁵ Nevertheless, the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam. Instead the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing on you because the Lord your God loves you. ⁶ You are not ever to seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days.

⁷ You are not to abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a foreigner in his land. ⁸ The children who are born of them may enter the assembly of the Lord in their third generation.

Uncleanness in the Camp

⁹ When the army goes out against your enemies, then keep yourself from every wicked thing. ¹⁰ If there be among you any man who is not clean because of a nocturnal emission, then he must leave the camp. He may not re-enter the camp. ¹¹ And it must be that when evening comes, he must wash himself with water, and at sunset he may re-enter the camp.

¹² You must also have a place outside the camp where one may go outside. ¹³ You must have a spade among your equipment, and it must be, when you relieve yourself outside, you must dig there and turn and cover up your excrement. ¹⁴ For the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you, and to defeat your enemies before you. Therefore, your camp must be holy, so that He does not see any indecent thing among you, and turn away from you.

Various Laws

¹⁵ You must not deliver back to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you. ¹⁶ He is to dwell with you, even among you, in a place which he shall choose in one of your towns, where he prefers. You must not oppress him.

¹⁷ There must never be a cult prostitute among the daughters of Israel nor a cult prostitute among the sons of Israel. ¹⁸ You must never bring the wage of a prostitute or the wage of a dog into the house of the Lord your God for any vow, for both of these are abominations to the Lord your God.

¹⁹ You must not charge interest on a loan to your brother: interest on money, interest on food, or on anything that may be lent with interest. ²⁰ You may charge interest to a foreigner, but to your brother you may not lend with interest so that the Lord your God may bless you in all to which you set your hand in the land which you are entering to possess.

²¹ When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you must not be slow to pay it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and it would be a sin to you. ²² But if you refrain from making a vow, it will not be a sin to you. ²³ That which goes out of your lips you must keep and do, even a freewill offering, just as you have vowed to the Lord your God, what you have promised with your mouth.

²⁴ When you go into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat grapes to your fill at your own pleasure, but you may not put any in your basket. ²⁵ When you enter into the standing grain of your neighbor, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you may not use a sickle on your neighbor’s standing grain.