Persons Excluded from the Assembly

23 “^(A)No one who is ^[a]emasculated or has his male organ cut off may enter the assembly of the Lord. ² No one of illegitimate birth may enter the assembly of the Lord; none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation, may enter the assembly of the Lord. ^3 (B)No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, may ever enter the assembly of the Lord, ^4 (C)because they did not meet you with ^[b]food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you ^(D)Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of ^[c]Mesopotamia, to curse you. ⁵ Nevertheless, the Lord your God was unwilling to listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God ^(E)turned the curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your God ^(F)loves you. ^6 (G)You shall never seek their peace or their prosperity all your days.

⁷ “You shall not loathe an ^[d]Edomite, for ^(H)he is your brother; you shall not loathe an Egyptian, ^(I)because you were a stranger in his land. ⁸ The sons of the third generation who are born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord.

⁹ “When you go out as ^[e]an army against your enemies, you shall be on guard against every evil thing.

¹⁰ “^(J)If there is among you any man who is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he must go outside the camp; he may not ^[f]reenter the camp. ¹¹ But when evening approaches, he shall bathe himself with water, and at sundown he may ^[g]reenter the camp.

¹² “You shall also have a place allocated outside the camp, so that you may go out there to relieve yourself, ¹³ and you shall have a ^[h]spade among your tools, and it shall be when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and shall turn and cover up your excrement. ¹⁴ Since ^(K)the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to save you and to ^[i]defeat your enemies before you, your camp must be ^(L)holy; so He must not see ^[j]anything indecent among you ^[k]or He will turn away from you.

¹⁵ “^(M)You shall not hand over to his master a slave who has ^[l]escaped from his master to you. ¹⁶ He shall live with you in your midst, in the place that he chooses in one of your ^[m]towns where it pleases him; ^(N)you shall not mistreat him.

¹⁷ “^(O)None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, ^(P)nor shall any of the sons of Israel be a cult prostitute. ¹⁸ You shall not bring the earnings of a prostitute or the money for a ^[n](Q)dog into the house of the Lord your God as payment for any vowed offering, because both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.

¹⁹ “^(R)You are not to charge interest to your countrymen: interest on money, food, or anything that may be loaned on interest. ^20 (S)You may charge interest to a foreigner, but to your countrymen you shall not charge interest, so that ^(T)the Lord your God may bless you in all ^[o]that you undertake in the land which you are about to enter to ^[p]possess.

²¹ “^(U)When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for the Lord your God will certainly require it of you, and it will be a sin ^[q]for you. ²² However, if you refrain from making vows, it will not be a sin ^[r]for you. ²³ You shall be careful and perform what goes out of your lips, since in fact you have vowed a ^[s]voluntary offering to the Lord your God, whatever you have ^[t]promised.

²⁴ “When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat grapes ^[u]until you are satisfied; but you are not to put any in your ^[v]basket.

²⁵ “^(V)When you enter your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the heads of grain with your hand, but you are not to ^[w]use a sickle on your neighbor’s standing grain.

Laws on Immoral Relations

18 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘^(A)I am the Lord your God. ³ You shall not do ^[a]what is ^(B)done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do ^[b]what is ^(C)done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not walk in their statutes. ⁴ You are to perform My judgments and keep My statutes, ^[c]to live in accord with them; ^(D)I am the Lord your God. ⁵ So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, ^(E)which, if ^[d]a person ^[e]follows them, then he will live by them; I am the Lord.

⁶ ‘None of you shall approach any blood relative ^[f]of his to uncover nakedness; I am the Lord. ^7 (F)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, that is, the nakedness of your mother. She is your mother; you are not to uncover her nakedness. ^8 (G)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness. ⁹ As for ^(H)the nakedness of your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether born in the household or born outside the household, you shall not uncover their nakedness. ¹⁰ The nakedness of your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, their nakedness you shall not uncover; for ^[g]their nakedness is yours. ¹¹ The nakedness of your father’s wife’s daughter, born to your father, she is your sister; you shall not uncover her nakedness. ^12 (I)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is your father’s blood relative. ¹³ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s blood relative. ^14 (J)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother. You shall not approach his wife; she is your aunt. ^15 (K)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law. She is your son’s wife; you shall not uncover her nakedness. ^16 (L)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness. ^17 (M)You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and of her daughter, nor shall you take her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter, to uncover her nakedness; they are blood relatives. It is an outrageous sin. ¹⁸ And you shall not ^[h]marry a woman in addition to her sister ^[i]as a second wife while she is alive, to uncover her nakedness.

¹⁹ ‘^(N)Also you shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness during her ^(O)menstrual impurity. ²⁰ And ^(P)you shall not have sexual intercourse with your neighbor’s wife, to be defiled with her. ²¹ You shall not give any of your children ^(Q)to ^[j]offer them to Molech, nor shall you ^(R)profane the name of your God; I am the Lord. ^22 (S)You shall not sleep with a male as ^[k]one sleeps with a female; it is an abomination. ^23 (T)Also you shall not have sexual intercourse with any animal to be defiled with it, nor shall any woman stand before an animal to ^[l]mate with it; it is a perversion.

²⁴ ‘Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these things ^(U)the nations which I am driving out from you have become defiled. ²⁵ For the land has become defiled, ^(V)therefore I have brought its punishment upon it, so the land ^(W)has vomited out its inhabitants. ²⁶ But as for you, you are to keep My statutes and My judgments, and you shall not do any of these abominations, neither the native, nor the stranger who resides among you ²⁷ (for the people of the land who were there before you did all these abominations, and the land has become defiled), ²⁸ so that the land will not vomit you out should you defile it, as it has vomited out the nation which was there before you. ²⁹ For whoever does any of these abominations, those persons who do so shall be cut off from among their people. ³⁰ So you are to keep ^(X)your ^[m]commitment to Me not to practice any of the abominable customs which have been practiced before you, so that you do not defile yourselves with them; ^(Y)I am the Lord your God.’”