Deuteronomy 23
1 “Any man whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall not be (included as one of/allowed to worship with) Yahweh’s people.
No man injured by crushing or cutting off may enter the assembly of Yahweh.
2 “No (illegitimate person/person whose mother and father were not married), or descendant of that person, extending to the tenth generation, shall be included as one of Yahweh’s people.
No illegitimate child may belong to the assembly of Yahweh; as far as to the tenth generation of his descendants, none of them may belong to the assembly of Yahweh.
3 “No one from the Ammon or Moab people-groups shall be (included as one of/allowed to worship with) Yahweh’s people, extending to the tenth generation.
An Ammonite or a Moabite may not belong to the assembly of Yahweh; as far as to the tenth generation of his descendants, none of them may belong to the assembly of Yahweh.
4 One reason is that their [leaders] refused to give your ancestors food and water when they were traveling from Egypt [to Canaan]. Another reason is that they wanted to pay Balaam, the son of Beor from Pethor [town] in Mesopotamia, to curse you Israelis.
This is because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the road when you had come out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram Naharaim, to curse you.
5 But Yahweh our God did not pay attention to Balaam; instead, he caused Balaam to bless your ancestors, because Yahweh loved them.
But Yahweh your God would not listen to Balaam; instead, Yahweh your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because Yahweh your God loved you.
6 As long as Israel is a nation, you must not do anything to cause things to go well for those two people-groups or enable them to prosper.
You must never seek their peace or prosperity, during all your days.
7 “But do not despise anyone from the Edom people-group, because they are [descendants of your ancestor Jacob], just like you are. And do not despise people from Egypt, because [they treated your ancestors well when] they first lived in Egypt.
You must not detest an Edomite, for he is your brother; you must not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a foreigner in his land.
8 The children and grandchildren of people from Edom and Egypt [who live among you] may be (included among/allowed to worship with) Yahweh’s people.”
The descendants of the third generation that are born to them may belong to the assembly of Yahweh.
9 “When your soldiers are living in tents at a time of fighting your enemies, they must avoid doing things that would make them unacceptable to God.
When you march out as an army against your enemies, then you must keep yourselves from every evil thing.
10 If any soldier becomes unacceptable to God because semen comes out of his body during the night, [the next morning] he must go outside the camp and stay there during that day.
If there is among you any man who is unclean because of what happened to him at night, then he must go out of the army's camp; he must not come back into the camp.
11 But in the evening of that day, he must bathe himself, and at sunset he is allowed to come back into the camp.
When evening comes, he must bathe himself in water; when the sun goes down, he will come back inside the camp.
12 “Your soldiers must have a toilet area outside the camp where you can go [when you need to].
You must have a place also outside the camp to which you will go;
13 [When you go to fight against your enemies], carry a stick along with your weapons, in order that when you need to defecate [EUP], you can dig a hole with the stick, and then cover up the hole [when you have finished defecating].
and you will have something among your tools to dig with; when you squat down to relieve yourself, you must dig with it and then put back the earth and cover up what has come out from you.
14 You must keep the camp acceptable to Yahweh our God, because he is with you in your camp to protect you and to enable you to defeat your enemies. Do not do anything disgraceful/indecent that would cause Yahweh to abandon you.”
For Yahweh your God walks in the midst of your camp to give you victory and to give your enemies into your hand. Therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see any unclean thing among you and turn away from you.
15 “If slaves who escape from their masters come to you [and request you to protect them], do not send them back to their masters.
You must not give back to his master a slave who has escaped from his master.
16 Allow them to stay/live among you, in whatever town they choose, and do not mistreat them.
Let him live with you, in whatever town he chooses. Do not oppress him.
17 “Do not [allow] any Israeli man or woman [to] become a prostitute at the temple.
There must be no cultic prostitute among any of the daughters of Israel, neither must there be a cultic prostitute among the sons of Israel.
18 Also, do not allow any people who earned money from being a prostitute to bring any of that money into the temple of Yahweh our God, even if they solemnly promised to pay that money to Yahweh. Yahweh hates those who are prostitutes.
You must not bring the wages of a prostitute or the wages of a dog into the house of Yahweh your God for any vow; for both these are abominations to Yahweh your God.
19 “When you lend money or food or anything else to a fellow Israeli, do not charge them interest.
You must not lend on interest to your fellow Israelite—interest of money, interest of food, or the interest of anything that is lent on interest.
20 You are allowed to charge interest when you lend money to foreigners [who live in your land], but not when you lend money to Israelis. Do this in order that Yahweh our God will bless you in everything that you do in the land that you are about to enter and occupy.
To a foreigner you may lend on interest; but to your fellow Israelite you must not lend on interest, so that Yahweh your God may bless you in all that you put your hand to, in the land which you are going in to possess.
21 “When you vow to give something to Yahweh your God [or to do something for him], do it as soon as you can. Yahweh expects you to do what you promised, and if you do not do it, you will be committing a sin.
When you make a vow to Yahweh your God, you must not be slow in fulfilling it, for Yahweh your God will surely require it of you; it would be sin for you not to fulfill it.
22 But if you [SYN] do not vow [to do something], that is not sinful.
But if you will refrain from making a vow, it will be no sin for you.
23 But if you voluntarily promise to do something, you must do it.
That which has gone out from your lips you must observe and do; according as you have vowed to Yahweh your God, anything that you have freely promised with your mouth.
24 “When you walk through someone else’s vineyard, you are allowed to [pick and] eat as many grapes as you want, but you must not [cut some from a vine and carry them away] in a container.
When you go into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you desire, but do not put any in your basket.
25 When you walk [along a path] in someone else’s field of grain, you are allowed to pluck/pick some of the grain and eat it, but you must not cut any grain with a sickle [and take it with you].”
When you go into your neighbor's ripe grain, you may pluck the heads of grain with your hand, but do not put a sickle to your neighbor's ripe grain.
