Those Excluded from the Assembly

23 “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord.

(A)“No one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord.

(B)“No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever, (C)because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they (D)hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of (E)Mesopotamia, to curse you. But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam; instead the Lord your God turned (F)the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you. You (G)shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever.

“You shall not abhor an Edomite, for (H)he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because (I)you were a sojourner in his land. Children born to them in the third generation may enter the assembly of the Lord.

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The Lord’s assembly

23 [a] No man whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off can belong to the Lord’s assembly. No one born of an illegitimate marriage[b] can belong to the Lord’s assembly either. Not even the tenth generation of such children can belong to the Lord’s assembly. Ammonites and Moabites can’t belong to the Lord’s assembly. Not even the tenth generation of such people can belong to the Lord’s assembly, as a rule, because they didn’t help you with food or water on your journey out of Egypt, and because they hired Balaam, Beor’s son, from Pethor of Mesopotamia to curse you. But the Lord your God wasn’t interested in listening to Balaam. The Lord your God turned that curse into a blessing because the Lord your God loves you. So don’t be concerned with their health and well-being as long as you live.

Don’t detest Edomites, because they are your relatives. Don’t detest Egyptians because you were immigrants in their land. Children born to them are permitted to belong to the Lord’s assembly starting with the third generation.

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 23:1 23:2 in Heb
  2. Deuteronomy 23:2 Heb uncertain