Deuteronomy - Chapter 23

¹ 'A man must not take his father's wife; he must not withdraw the skirt of his father's cloak from her.

² 'A man whose testicles have been crushed or whose male member has been cut off must not be admitted to the assembly of Yahweh.

³ No half-breed may be admitted to the assembly of Yahweh; not even his descendants to the tenth generation may be admitted to the assembly of Yahweh.

⁴ No Ammonite or Moabite may be admitted to the assembly of Yahweh; not even his descendants to the tenth generation may be admitted to the assembly of Yahweh, and this is for all time;

⁵ since they did not come to meet you with food and drink when you were on your way out of Egypt, and even hired Balaam son of Beor to oppose you by cursing you, from Pethor in Aram Naharaim.

⁶ But Yahweh your God refused to listen to Balaam, and Yahweh your God turned the curse on you into a blessing, because Yahweh your God loved you.

⁷ Never, as long as you live, must you seek their welfare or their prosperity.

⁸ 'You must not regard the Edomite as detestable, for he is your brother; you must not regard the Egyptian as detestable, since you were once a foreigner in his country.

⁹ The third generation of children born to these may be admitted to the assembly of Yahweh.

¹⁰ 'When you are in camp, at war with your enemies, you must avoid anything bad.

¹¹ If any one of you is unclean by reason of a nocturnal emission, he must leave and not come back into camp,

¹² but towards evening wash himself, and return to camp at sunset.

¹³ 'You must have a latrine outside the camp, and go out to this;

¹⁴ you must have a trowel in your equipment and, when you squat outside, you must scrape a hole with it, then turn round and cover up your excrement.

¹⁵ For Yahweh your God goes about the inside of your camp to guard you and put your enemies at your mercy. Your camp must therefore be a holy place; Yahweh must not see anything indecent there or he will desert you.

¹⁶ 'You must not allow a master to imprison a slave who has escaped from him and come to you.

¹⁷ Let him make his home with you and yours, wherever he pleases in whichever of your towns he prefers; you must not molest him.

¹⁸ 'There must be no sacred prostitute among the women of Israel, and no sacred prostitute among the men of Israel.

¹⁹ You must not bring the wages of a prostitute or the earnings of a 'dog' to the house of Yahweh your God, whatever vow you may have made: both are detestable to Yahweh your God.

²⁰ 'You must not lend on interest to your brother, whether the loan be of money, of food, or of anything else that may earn interest.

²¹ You may demand interest on a loan to a foreigner, but you must not demand interest from your brother; so that Yahweh your God may bless you in all your labours, in the country which you are about to enter and make your own.

²² 'If you make a vow to Yahweh your God, you must not be slack about fulfilling it: Yahweh your God will certainly hold you answerable for it and you will incur guilt.

²³ If, however, you make no vow, you do not incur guilt.

²⁴ Whatever passes your lips you must keep to, and the vow that you have made to Yahweh, your generous God, you must fulfil.

²⁵ 'If you go into your neighbour's vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you please, but you must not put any in your basket.

²⁶ If you go into your neighbour's standing corn, you may pick ears by hand, but you must not put a sickle into your neighbour's corn.'

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