Deuteronomy 23

Those Excluded from the Assembly

²³“No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall come into the assembly of the Lord.

²“Those born of an illicit union shall not come into the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of their descendants shall come into the assembly of the Lord.

³“No Ammonite or Moabite shall come into the assembly of the Lord even to the tenth generation. None of their descendants shall come into the assembly of the Lord forever, ⁴because they did not meet you with food and water on your journey out of Egypt and because they hired against you Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. ⁵(Yet the Lord your God refused to heed Balaam; the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you.) ⁶You shall never promote their welfare or their prosperity as long as you live.

⁷“You shall not abhor any of the Edomites, for they are your kin. You shall not abhor any of the Egyptians, because you were an alien residing in their land. ⁸The children of the third generation that are born to them may come into the assembly of the Lord.

Sanitary, Ritual, and Humanitarian Precepts

⁹“When you are encamped against your enemies, you shall guard against every evil thing.

¹⁰“If one of you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he shall go outside the camp; he must not come within the camp. ¹¹When evening comes, he shall wash himself with water, and when the sun has set, he may come back into the camp.

¹²“You shall have a designated area outside the camp to which you shall go. ¹³With your tools you shall have a trowel; when you relieve yourself outside, you shall dig a hole with it and then cover up your excrement. ¹⁴Because the Lord your God travels along with your camp, to save you and to hand over your enemies to you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.

¹⁵“You shall not return to their owners slaves who have escaped to you from their owners. ¹⁶They shall reside with you, in your midst, in any place they choose in any one of your towns, wherever they please; you shall not oppress them.

¹⁷“None of the daughters of Israel shall serve in an illicit shrine; none of the sons of Israel shall serve in an illicit shrine.^{* 18}You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog into the house of the Lord your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are abhorrent to the Lord your God.

¹⁹“You shall not charge interest on loans to another Israelite,^b interest on money, interest on provisions, interest on anything that is lent.^{* 20}On loans to a foreigner you may charge interest, but on loans to another Israelite^c you may not charge interest, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your undertakings in the land that you are about to enter and possess.^*

²¹“If you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not postpone fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you would incur guilt.^{* 22}But if you refrain from vowing, you will not incur guilt. ²³Whatever your lips utter you must diligently perform, just as you have freely vowed to the Lord your God with your own mouth.

²⁴“If you go into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in a container.

²⁵“If you go into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.^*