Exclusion From the Assembly

23 [a]No one who has been emasculated(A) by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord.

No one born of a forbidden marriage[b] nor any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation.

No Ammonite(B) or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation.(C) For they did not come to meet you with bread and water(D) on your way when you came out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam(E) son of Beor from Pethor in Aram Naharaim[c](F) to pronounce a curse on you.(G) However, the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam but turned the curse(H) into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves(I) you. Do not seek a treaty(J) of friendship with them as long as you live.(K)

Do not despise an Edomite,(L) for the Edomites are related to you.(M) Do not despise an Egyptian, because you resided as foreigners in their country.(N) The third generation of children born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord.

Uncleanness in the Camp

When you are encamped against your enemies, keep away from everything impure.(O) 10 If one of your men is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he is to go outside the camp and stay there.(P) 11 But as evening approaches he is to wash himself, and at sunset(Q) he may return to the camp.(R)

12 Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. 13 As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement. 14 For the Lord your God moves(S) about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy,(T) so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you.

Miscellaneous Laws

15 If a slave has taken refuge(U) with you, do not hand them over to their master.(V) 16 Let them live among you wherever they like and in whatever town they choose. Do not oppress(W) them.

17 No Israelite man(X) or woman is to become a shrine prostitute.(Y) 18 You must not bring the earnings of a female prostitute or of a male prostitute[d] into the house of the Lord your God to pay any vow, because the Lord your God detests them both.(Z)

19 Do not charge a fellow Israelite interest, whether on money or food or anything else that may earn interest.(AA) 20 You may charge a foreigner(AB) interest, but not a fellow Israelite, so that the Lord your God may bless(AC) you in everything you put your hand to in the land you are entering to possess.

21 If you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not be slow to pay it,(AD) for the Lord your God will certainly demand it of you and you will be guilty of sin.(AE) 22 But if you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty.(AF) 23 Whatever your lips utter you must be sure to do, because you made your vow freely to the Lord your God with your own mouth.

24 If you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want, but do not put any in your basket. 25 If you enter your neighbor’s grainfield, you may pick kernels with your hands, but you must not put a sickle to their standing grain.(AG)

24 If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him(AH) because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce,(AI) gives it to her and sends her from his house, and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the Lord. Do not bring sin upon the land the Lord(AJ) your God is giving you as an inheritance.

If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.(AK)

Do not take a pair of millstones—not even the upper one—as security for a debt, because that would be taking a person’s livelihood as security.(AL)

If someone is caught kidnapping a fellow Israelite and treating or selling them as a slave, the kidnapper must die.(AM) You must purge the evil from among you.(AN)

In cases of defiling skin diseases,[e] be very careful to do exactly as the Levitical(AO) priests instruct you. You must follow carefully what I have commanded them.(AP) Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam along the way after you came out of Egypt.(AQ)

10 When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, do not go into their house to get what is offered to you as a pledge.(AR) 11 Stay outside and let the neighbor to whom you are making the loan bring the pledge out to you. 12 If the neighbor is poor, do not go to sleep with their pledge(AS) in your possession. 13 Return their cloak by sunset(AT) so that your neighbor may sleep in it.(AU) Then they will thank you, and it will be regarded as a righteous act in the sight of the Lord your God.(AV)

14 Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.(AW) 15 Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor(AX) and are counting on it.(AY) Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.(AZ)

16 Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.(BA)

17 Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless(BB) of justice,(BC) or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. 18 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt(BD) and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.

19 When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it.(BE) Leave it for the foreigner,(BF) the fatherless and the widow,(BG) so that the Lord your God may bless(BH) you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time.(BI) Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. 21 When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. 22 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this.(BJ)

Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 23:1 In Hebrew texts 23:1-25 is numbered 23:2-26.
  2. Deuteronomy 23:2 Or one of illegitimate birth
  3. Deuteronomy 23:4 That is, Northwest Mesopotamia
  4. Deuteronomy 23:18 Hebrew of a dog
  5. Deuteronomy 24:8 The Hebrew word for defiling skin diseases, traditionally translated “leprosy,” was used for various diseases affecting the skin.

23 He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord.

A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the Lord.

An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord for ever:

Because they met you not with bread and with water in the way, when ye came forth out of Egypt; and because they hired against thee Balaam the son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse thee.

Nevertheless the Lord thy God would not hearken unto Balaam; but the Lord thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because the Lord thy God loved thee.

Thou shalt not seek their peace nor their prosperity all thy days for ever.

Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite; for he is thy brother: thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian; because thou wast a stranger in his land.

The children that are begotten of them shall enter into the congregation of the Lord in their third generation.

When the host goeth forth against thine enemies, then keep thee from every wicked thing.

10 If there be among you any man, that is not clean by reason of uncleanness that chanceth him by night, then shall he go abroad out of the camp, he shall not come within the camp:

11 But it shall be, when evening cometh on, he shall wash himself with water: and when the sun is down, he shall come into the camp again.

12 Thou shalt have a place also without the camp, whither thou shalt go forth abroad:

13 And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee:

14 For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee.

15 Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee:

16 He shall dwell with thee, even among you, in that place which he shall choose in one of thy gates, where it liketh him best: thou shalt not oppress him.

17 There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.

18 Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the Lord thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the Lord thy God.

19 Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of any thing that is lent upon usury:

20 Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all that thou settest thine hand to in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

21 When thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it: for the Lord thy God will surely require it of thee; and it would be sin in thee.

22 But if thou shalt forbear to vow, it shall be no sin in thee.

23 That which is gone out of thy lips thou shalt keep and perform; even a freewill offering, according as thou hast vowed unto the Lord thy God, which thou hast promised with thy mouth.

24 When thou comest into thy neighbour's vineyard, then thou mayest eat grapes thy fill at thine own pleasure; but thou shalt not put any in thy vessel.

25 When thou comest into the standing corn of thy neighbour, then thou mayest pluck the ears with thine hand; but thou shalt not move a sickle unto thy neighbour's standing corn.

24 When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.

And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife.

And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife;

Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the Lord: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

When a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business: but he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer up his wife which he hath taken.

No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge: for he taketh a man's life to pledge.

If a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the children of Israel, and maketh merchandise of him, or selleth him; then that thief shall die; and thou shalt put evil away from among you.

Take heed in the plague of leprosy, that thou observe diligently, and do according to all that the priests the Levites shall teach you: as I commanded them, so ye shall observe to do.

Remember what the Lord thy God did unto Miriam by the way, after that ye were come forth out of Egypt.

10 When thou dost lend thy brother any thing, thou shalt not go into his house to fetch his pledge.

11 Thou shalt stand abroad, and the man to whom thou dost lend shall bring out the pledge abroad unto thee.

12 And if the man be poor, thou shalt not sleep with his pledge:

13 In any case thou shalt deliver him the pledge again when the sun goeth down, that he may sleep in his own raiment, and bless thee: and it shall be righteousness unto thee before the Lord thy God.

14 Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates:

15 At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee.

16 The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.

17 Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow's raiment to pledge:

18 But thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee thence: therefore I command thee to do this thing.

19 When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands.

20 When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

21 When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterward: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

22 And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt: therefore I command thee to do this thing.

Those Excluded from the Congregation

23 “He who is emasculated by crushing or mutilation shall (A)not enter the assembly of the Lord.

“One of illegitimate birth shall not enter the assembly of the Lord; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the Lord.

(B)“An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the Lord; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the Lord forever, (C)because they did not meet you with bread and water on the road when you came out of Egypt, and (D)because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of [a]Mesopotamia, to curse you. Nevertheless the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God (E)loves you. (F)You shall not seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days forever.

“You shall not abhor an Edomite, (G)for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because (H)you were an alien in his land. The children of the third generation born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord.

Cleanliness of the Campsite

“When the army goes out against your enemies, then keep yourself from every wicked thing. 10 (I)If there is any man among you who becomes unclean by some occurrence in the night, then he shall go outside the camp; he shall not come inside the camp. 11 But it shall be, when evening comes, that (J)he shall wash with water; and when the sun sets, he may come into the camp.

12 “Also you shall have a place outside the camp, where you may go out; 13 and you shall have an implement among your equipment, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and turn and cover your refuse. 14 For the Lord your God (K)walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and give your enemies over to you; therefore your camp shall be holy, that He may see no unclean thing among you, and turn away from you.

Miscellaneous Laws

15 (L)“You shall not give back to his master the slave who has escaped from his master to you. 16 He may dwell with you in your midst, in the place which he chooses within one of your gates, where it [b]seems best to him; (M)you shall not oppress him.

17 “There shall be no ritual [c]harlot (N)of the daughters of Israel, or a (O)perverted[d] one of the sons of Israel. 18 You shall not bring the wages of a harlot or the price of a dog to the house of the Lord your God for any vowed offering, for both of these are [e]an abomination to the Lord your God.

19 (P)“You shall not charge interest to your brother—interest on money or food or anything that is lent out at interest. 20 (Q)To a foreigner you may charge interest, but to your brother you shall not charge interest, (R)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 (S)“When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it; for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and it would be sin to you. 22 But if you abstain from vowing, it shall not be sin to you. 23 (T)That which has gone from your lips you shall keep and perform, for you voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth.

24 “When you come into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes at your pleasure, but you shall not put any in your container. 25 When you come into your neighbor’s standing grain, (U)you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbor’s standing grain.

Law Concerning Divorce

24 “When a (V)man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some [f]uncleanness in her, and he writes her a (W)certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, when she has departed from his house, and goes and becomes another man’s wife, if the latter husband detests her and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her as his wife, (X)then her former husband who divorced her must not take her back to be his wife after she has been defiled; for that is [g]an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Miscellaneous Laws

(Y)“When a man has taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war or be charged with any business; he shall be free at home one year, and (Z)bring happiness to his wife whom he has taken.

“No man shall take the lower or the upper millstone in pledge, for he takes [h]one’s living in pledge.

“If a man is (AA)found [i]kidnapping any of his brethren of the children of Israel, and mistreats him or sells him, then that kidnapper shall die; (AB)and you shall put away the evil from among you.

“Take heed in (AC)an outbreak of leprosy, that you carefully observe and do according to all that the priests, the Levites, shall teach you; just as I commanded them, so you shall be careful to do. (AD)Remember what the Lord your God did (AE)to Miriam on the way when you came out of Egypt!

10 “When you (AF)lend your brother anything, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge. 11 You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you lend shall bring the pledge out to you. 12 And if the man is poor, you shall not [j]keep his pledge overnight. 13 (AG)You shall in any case return the pledge to him again when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his own garment and (AH)bless you; and (AI)it shall be righteousness to you before the Lord your God.

14 “You shall not (AJ)oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether one of your brethren or one of the aliens who is in your land within your gates. 15 Each day (AK)you shall give him his wages, and not let the sun go down on it, for he is poor and has set his heart on it; (AL)lest he cry out against you to the Lord, and it be sin to you.

16 (AM)“Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers; a person shall be put to death for his own sin.

17 (AN)“You shall not pervert justice due the stranger or the fatherless, (AO)nor take a widow’s garment as a pledge. 18 But (AP)you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this thing.

19 (AQ)“When you reap your harvest in your field, and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may (AR)bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. 21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. 22 And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this thing.

Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 23:4 Heb. Aram Naharaim
  2. Deuteronomy 23:16 pleases him best
  3. Deuteronomy 23:17 Heb. qedeshah, fem. of qadesh (next note)
  4. Deuteronomy 23:17 Heb. qadesh, one practicing sodomy and prostitution in religious rituals
  5. Deuteronomy 23:18 detestable
  6. Deuteronomy 24:1 indecency, lit. nakedness of a thing
  7. Deuteronomy 24:4 a detestable thing
  8. Deuteronomy 24:6 life
  9. Deuteronomy 24:7 Lit. stealing
  10. Deuteronomy 24:12 Lit. sleep with his pledge