Deuteronomy 23:3

3 No Ammonite or Moabite may come into the meeting to worship the Lord, and none of their descendants for ten generations may come in.

Deuteronomy 23:3 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 23:3

An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of
the Lord
Or marry an Israelitish woman, as Jarchi, and so the Targum of Jonathan,

``the male Ammonites and Moabites are not fit to take a wife of the congregation of the Lord;''

for the Jews restrain this to men, because it is, as Aben Ezra observes, an Ammonite, not an Ammonitess, a Moabite, not a Moabitess; they allow that females of those nations might be married to Israelites, that is, provided they were proselytesses, as Ruth was ^F13:

even to their tenth generation, shall they not enter into the
congregation of the Lord for ever;
that is, not only to the tenth generation, but for ever; and this law was understood as in force in Nehemiah's time, which was more than ten generations from the making of it; though now, as these nations are no more a distinct people, they suppose it is no longer binding ^F14.

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 Misn. Yebamot, c. 8. sect. 3.
F14 Misn. Yadaim, c. 4. sect. 4.

Deuteronomy 23:3 In-Context

1 No man who has had part of his sex organ cut off may come into the meeting to worship the Lord.

2 No one born to parents who were forbidden by law to marry may come into the meeting to worship the Lord. The descendants for ten generations may not come in either.

3 No Ammonite or Moabite may come into the meeting to worship the Lord, and none of their descendants for ten generations may come in.

4 This is because the Ammonites and Moabites did not give you bread and water when you came out of Egypt. And they hired Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor in Northwest Mesopotamia, to put a curse on you

5 But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam. He turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you.