Deuteronomy 23

Deuteronomy 23 belongs to the collection of laws in chapters 12–26, which forms part of Moses' second address. Following Deuteronomy 22, which deals with marriage and sexual conduct, it briefly lists ordinances concerning the boundaries and daily life of the community.

Outline

• Verses 1–8 specify who may not enter the congregation of the LORD. Here the congregation refers to the community of Israel assembled before God.
• A man whose genitals are damaged may not enter.
• One born of an illegitimate union may not enter, even to the tenth generation.
• An Ammonite or a Moabite may never enter, because they did not meet Israel with bread and water during the Exodus and because they hired Balaam to curse Israel.
• Israel is told not to abhor an Edomite or an Egyptian, and the children of the third generation born to them may enter.
• Verses 9–14 give purity regulations for the camp when it goes out to war. A man made unclean by a nocturnal emission is to remain outside the camp, bathe at sundown, and then return. Excrement is to be covered outside the camp by digging in the ground with a spade, because the LORD walks in the midst of the camp.
• Verses 15–16 command that a servant who has escaped from his master is not to be returned, but is to be allowed to live in whatever town he chooses and is not to be oppressed.
• Verses 17–18 forbid that there be any prostitute or sodomite (rendered "male prostitute" in the New Korean Revised Version) in Israel, and prohibit bringing their earnings as a vow offering.
• Verses 19–20 forbid charging interest when lending to a brother, though interest may be charged to a foreigner.
• Verses 21–23 require that vows be paid without delay, and state that it is no sin to refrain from vowing.
• Verses 24–25 permit eating a neighbor's grapes or plucking ears of grain by hand, but forbid putting grapes in a vessel or putting a sickle to the neighbor's standing grain.

Key Verses

• Deuteronomy 23:5 "the LORD thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee" — This verse interprets the Balaam episode in terms of God's love. It is quoted again in Nehemiah 13:2.
• Deuteronomy 23:15 "Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee" — This regulation is frequently cited as a contrast to other ancient Near Eastern laws that required runaway slaves to be returned to their masters.
• Deuteronomy 23:21 "When thou shalt vow a vow unto the LORD thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it" — A representative verse on vows, read together with Ecclesiastes 5:4–5.

People and Places

• Balaam: The son of Beor, hired to curse Israel (Numbers 22–24). In this chapter's wording he is "of Pethor of Mesopotamia."
• Ammon, Moab: Peoples introduced in Genesis 19 as descendants of Lot.
• Edom: Called Israel's "brother" because the Edomites descended from Esau.
• Egypt: The land where Israel lived as strangers.

Points for Reflection

• The regulation excluding Moabites is discussed alongside the story of the Moabite woman Ruth, who became David's great-grandmother. Rabbinic tradition is reported to have applied this regulation only to Moabite men. In Nehemiah 13, the people separated the mixed multitude from Israel after this regulation was read aloud.
• The regulations excluding eunuchs and foreigners are read in contrast with Isaiah 56, which promises to receive them, and with Acts 8, in which the Ethiopian eunuch is baptized.
• The regulation on runaway servants is sometimes discussed in connection with Paul's sending Onesimus back to Philemon (Philemon and Onesimus).
• The prohibition of interest served the medieval church as a basis for forbidding interest. John Calvin is said to have understood it as intended to prevent the exploitation of a poor brother, interpreting it in a way that permitted moderate interest.
• The regulation on plucking grain (verses 24–25) forms the background to the disciples' plucking and eating ears of grain on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:1–8). What the Pharisees objected to on that occasion was not the plucking itself but its being done on the Sabbath.
• The regulation on vows is read together with the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount not to swear oaths (Matthew 5:33–37).