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.