Deuteronomy 23:2-3

23:2 A person of illegitimate birth ¹  may not enter the assembly of the Lord; to the tenth generation no one related to him may do so. ² 

23:3 An Ammonite or Moabite ³  may not enter the assembly of the Lord; to the tenth generation none of their descendants shall ever ⁴  do so, ⁵ 

Deuteronomy 23:1

Purity in Public Worship

23:1 A man with crushed ⁶  or severed genitals ⁷  may not enter the assembly of the Lord. ⁸ 

Deuteronomy 23:8

23:8 Children of the third generation born to them ⁹  may enter the assembly of the Lord.

Deuteronomy 31:30

31:30 Then Moses recited the words of this song from start to finish in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel.

Deuteronomy 5:22

The Narrative of the Sinai Revelation and Israel’s Response

5:22 The Lord said these things to your entire assembly at the mountain from the middle of the fire, the cloud, and the darkness with a loud voice, and that was all he said. ¹⁰  Then he inscribed the words ¹¹  on two stone tablets and gave them to me.

Deuteronomy 9:10

9:10 The Lord gave me the two stone tablets, written by the very finger ¹²  of God, and on them was everything ¹³  he ¹⁴  said to you at the mountain from the midst of the fire at the time of that assembly.

Deuteronomy 10:4

10:4 The Lord ¹⁵  then wrote on the tablets the same words, ¹⁶  the ten commandments, ¹⁷  which he ¹⁸  had spoken to you at the mountain from the middle of the fire at the time of that assembly, and he ¹⁹  gave them to me.

Deuteronomy 18:16

18:16 This accords with what happened at Horeb in the day of the assembly. You asked the Lord your God: “Please do not make us hear the voice of the Lord our ²⁰  God any more or see this great fire any more lest we die.”

¹ tn Or “a person born of an illegitimate marriage.”

² tn Heb “enter the assembly of the Lord.” The phrase “do so” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

³ sn An Ammonite or Moabite. These descendants of Lot by his two daughters (cf. Gen 19:30-38) were thereby the products of incest and therefore excluded from the worshiping community. However, these two nations also failed to show proper hospitality to Israel on their way to Canaan (v. 4).

⁴ tn The Hebrew term translated “ever” (עַד־עוֹלָם, ’ad-’olam) suggests that “tenth generation” (vv. 2, 3) also means “forever.” However, in the OT sense “forever” means not “for eternity” but for an indeterminate future time. See A. Tomasino, NIDOTTE 3:346.

⁵ tn Heb “enter the assembly of the Lord.” The phrase “do so” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

⁵ tn Heb “bruised by crushing,” which many English versions take to refer to crushed testicles (NAB, NRSV, NLT); TEV “who has been castrated.”

⁶ tn Heb “cut off with respect to the penis”; KJV, ASV “hath his privy member cut off”; English versions vary in their degree of euphemism here; cf. NAB, NRSV, TEV, NLT “penis”; NASB “male organ”; NCV “sex organ”; CEV “private parts”; NIV “emasculated by crushing or cutting.”

⁷ sn The Hebrew term translated “assembly” (קָהָל, qahal) does not refer here to the nation as such but to the formal services of the tabernacle or temple. Since emasculated or other sexually abnormal persons were commonly associated with pagan temple personnel, the thrust here may be primarily polemical in intent. One should not read into this anything having to do with the mentally and physically handicapped as fit to participate in the life and ministry of the church.

⁷ sn Concessions were made to the Edomites and Egyptians (as compared to the others listed in vv. 1-6) because the Edomites (i.e., Esauites) were full “brothers” of Israel and the Egyptians had provided security and sustenance for Israel for more than four centuries.

⁹ tn Heb “and he added no more” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NLT “This was all he said at that time.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “them”; the referent (the words spoken by the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹¹ sn The very finger of God. This is a double figure of speech (1) in which God is ascribed human features (anthropomorphism) and (2) in which a part stands for the whole (synecdoche). That is, God, as Spirit, has no literal finger nor, if he had, would he write with his finger. Rather, the sense is that God himself – not Moses in any way – was responsible for the composition of the Ten Commandments (cf. Exod 31:18; 32:16; 34:1).

¹² tn Heb “according to all the words.”

¹³ tn Heb “the Lord” (likewise at the beginning of vv. 12, 13). See note on “he” in 9:3.

¹³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁴ tn Heb “according to the former writing.” See note on the phrase “the same words” in v. 2.

¹⁵ tn Heb “ten words.” The “Ten Commandments” are known in Hebrew as the “Ten Words,” which in Greek became the “Decalogue.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “the Lord.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

¹⁷ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” earlier in this verse.

¹⁵ tn The Hebrew text uses the collective singular in this verse: “my God…lest I die.”