Deuteronomy 23

1 No eunuch is to enter the congregation of God.

2 No bastard is to enter the congregation of God, even to the tenth generation, nor any of his children.

3 No Ammonite or Moabite is to enter the congregation of God, even to the tenth generation, nor any of his children, ever.

4 Those nations didn't treat you with hospitality on your travels out of Egypt, and on top of that they also hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Mesopotamia to curse you

5 God, your God, refused to listen to Balaam but turned the curse into a blessing - how God, your God, loves you!

6 Don't even try to get along with them or do anything for them, ever.

7 But don't spurn an Edomite; he's your kin. And don't spurn an Egyptian; you were a foreigner in his land.

8 Children born to Edomites and Egyptians may enter the congregation of God in the third generation.

9 When you are camped out, at war with your enemies, be careful to keep yourself from anything ritually defiling.

10 If one of your men has become ritually unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he must go outside the camp and stay there

11 until evening when he can wash himself, returning to the camp at sunset.

12 Mark out an area outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourselves.

13 Along with your weapons have a stick with you. After you relieve yourself, dig a hole with the stick and cover your excrement.

14 God, your God, strolls through your camp; he's present to deliver you and give you victory over your enemies. Keep your camp holy; don't permit anything indecent or offensive in God's eyes

15 Don't return a runaway slave to his master; he's come to you for refuge.

16 Let him live wherever he wishes within the protective gates of your city. Don't take advantage of him.

17 No daughter of Israel is to become a sacred prostitute; and no son of Israel is to become a sacred prostitute.

18 And don't bring the fee of a sacred whore or the earnings of a priest-pimp to the house of God, your God, to pay for any vow - they are both an abomination to God, your God.

19 Don't charge interest to your kinsmen on any loan: not for money or food or clothing or anything else that could earn interest

20 You may charge foreigners interest, but you may not charge your brothers interest; that way God, your God, will bless all the work that you take up and the land that you are entering to possess.

21 When you make a vow to God, your God, don't put off keeping it; God, your God, expects you to keep it and if you don't you're guilty

22 But if you don't make a vow in the first place, there's no sin.

23 If you say you're going to do something, do it. Keep the vow you willingly vowed to God, your God. You promised it, so do it.

24 When you enter your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want until you're full, but you may not put any in your bucket or bag.

25 And when you walk through the ripe grain of your neighbor, you may pick the heads of grain, but you may not swing your sickle there.

Deuteronomy 23 Commentary

Chapter 23

Who are shut out from the congregation. (1-8) Cleanliness enjoined. (15-25) Of fugitive servants, Usury, and other precepts. (9-14)

Verses 1-8 We ought to value the privileges of God's people, both for ourselves and for our children, above all other advantages. No personal blemishes, no crimes of our forefathers, no difference of nation, shuts us out under the Christian dispensation. But an unsound heart will deprive us of blessings; and a bad example, or an unsuitable marriage, may shut our children from them.

Verses 9-14 The camp of the Lord must have nothing offensive in it. If there must be this care taken to preserve the body clean, much more should we be careful to keep the mind pure.

Verses 15-25 It is honourable to shelter and protect the weak, provided they are not wicked. Proselytes and converts to the truth, should be treated with particular tenderness, that they may have no temptation to return to the world. We cannot honour God with our substance, unless it be honestly and honourably come by. It must not only be considered what we give, but how we got it. Where the borrower gets, or hopes to get, it is just that the lender should share the gain; but to him that borrows for necessary food, pity must be showed. That which is gone out of thy lips, as a solemn and deliberate vow, must not be recalled, but thou shalt keep and perform it punctually and fully. They were allowed to pluck and eat of the corn or grapes that grew by the road side; only they must not carry any away. This law intimated what great plenty of corn and wine they should have in Canaan. It provided for the support of poor travellers, and teaches us to be kind to such, teaches us to be ready to distribute, and not to think every thing lost that is given away. Yet it forbids us to abuse the kindness of friends, or to take advantage of what is allowed. Faithfulness to their engagements should mark the people of God; and they should never encroach upon others.

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 23

Orders are here given to restrain certain persons from entering into the congregation of the Lord, De 23:1-8, and to take care that there be no unclean person in the camp, or any indecent thing done in it, De 23:9-14, to protect fugitive servants, and not deliver them up to their masters, De 23:15,16 not to suffer a filthy person to be among them, or any filthy thing to be brought into the house of God for a vow, De 23:17,18, then follow some laws against usury, and for the payment of vows, De 23:19-23, and the chapter is concluded with some directions how to behave in a neighbour's vineyard, or standing corn, De 23:24,25.