Deuteronomy 23

¹ A man must not take his fathers wife, and must not withdraw the skirt of his father’s cloak from her.[*a]

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

³ No bastard[*b] is to be admitted to the assembly of Yahweh.

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

⁵ because they did not come to meet you with bread and water when you were on your way out of Egypt, and because they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram of the Two Rivers to curse you.

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

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

⁸ ‘You are not to regard the Edomite as detestable, for he is your brother; nor the Egyptian, because you were a stranger in his land.

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 keep clear of all evil.

¹¹ If any man among you is unclean by reason of a nocturnal emission, he must go out of the camp and not come into it again;

¹² towards evening he must wash himself, and he may return to the camp at sunset.

¹³ ‘You are not to regard the Edomite as detestable, for he is your brother;

¹⁴ nor must have a mattock among your equipment, and with this mattock, when you go outside to ease yourself, you must dig a hole and cover your excrement.

¹⁵ For Yahweh your God goes about within your camp to guard you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must therefore be a holy place; Yahweh must not see anything improper among you or he would turn away from you.

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

¹⁷ He shall live with you, among you, wherever he pleases in any one of your towns he chooses; you are not to molest him.

¹⁸ ‘There must be no sacred prostitute among the daughters of Israel, and no sacred prostitute among the sons of Israel.

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

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

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

²² ‘If you make a vow to Yahweh your God, you must not be lazy in keeping it; be sure that Yahweh your God requires it, and to withhold it would be a sin.

²³ But if you had refrained from making a vow, there would be no sin for you.

²⁴ Whatever passes your lips you must keep to, and the vow that you have freely made with your own mouth to Yahweh your God must be fulfilled.

²⁵ ‘If you go through your neighbour’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you must not put any in your basket.

²⁶ If you go through your neighbour’s standing corn, you may pick the ears with your hand, but you must not put a sickle into your neighbour’s corn.