Deuteronomy 23:12

12 Choose a place outside the camp where people may go to relieve themselves.

Deuteronomy 23:12 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 23:12

Thou shalt have also a place without the camp
A place prepared, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, provided on purpose for the use hereafter suggested; so Ben Melech:

whither thou shalt go forth abroad;
to do the necessities of nature, which they were to do without the camp, not in any place they thought fit and most convenient, but what was appointed for that purpose.

Deuteronomy 23:12 In-Context

10 If a man becomes unclean during the night, he must go outside the camp and not come back.

11 But when evening comes, he must wash himself, and at sunset he may come back into the camp.

12 Choose a place outside the camp where people may go to relieve themselves.

13 Carry a tent peg with you, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your dung.

14 The Lord your God moves around through your camp to protect you and to defeat your enemies for you, so the camp must be holy. He must not see anything unclean among you so that he will not leave you