4:1 Now, Israel, pay attention to the statutes and ordinances 1 I am about to teach you, so that you might live and go on to enter and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, 2 is giving you.
23:1 A man with crushed 3 or severed genitals 4 may not enter the assembly of the Lord. 5 23:2 A person of illegitimate birth 6 may not enter the assembly of the Lord; to the tenth generation no one related to him may do so. 7
23:3 An Ammonite or Moabite 8 may not enter the assembly of the Lord; to the tenth generation none of their descendants shall ever 9 do so, 10 23:4 for they did not meet you with food and water on the way as you came from Egypt, and furthermore, they hired 11 Balaam son of Beor of Pethor in Aram Naharaim to curse you. 23:5 But the Lord your God refused to listen to Balaam and changed 12 the curse to a blessing, for the Lord your God loves 13 you. 23:6 You must not seek peace and prosperity for them through all the ages to come. 23:7 You must not hate an Edomite, for he is your relative; 14 you must not hate an Egyptian, for you lived as a foreigner 15 in his land. 23:8 Children of the third generation born to them 16 may enter the assembly of the Lord.
23:9 When you go out as an army against your enemies, guard yourselves against anything impure. 17 23:10 If there is someone among you who is impure because of some nocturnal emission, 18 he must leave the camp; he may not reenter it immediately. 23:11 When evening arrives he must wash himself with water and then at sunset he may reenter the camp.
23:12 You are to have a place outside the camp to serve as a latrine. 19 23:13 You must have a spade among your other equipment and when you relieve yourself 20 outside you must dig a hole with the spade 21 and then turn and cover your excrement. 22 23:14 For the Lord your God walks about in the middle of your camp to deliver you and defeat 23 your enemies for you. Therefore your camp should be holy, so that he does not see anything indecent 24 among you and turn away from you.
23:15 You must not return an escaped slave to his master when he has run away to you. 25 23:16 Indeed, he may live among you in any place he chooses, in whichever of your villages 26 he prefers; you must not oppress him.
23:17 There must never be a sacred prostitute 27 among the young women 28 of Israel nor a sacred male prostitute 29 among the young men 30 of Israel. 23:18 You must never bring the pay of a female prostitute 31 or the wage of a male prostitute 32 into the temple of the Lord your God in fulfillment of any vow, for both of these are abhorrent to the Lord your God.
23:19 You must not charge interest on a loan to your fellow Israelite, 33 whether on money, food, or anything else that has been loaned with interest. 23:20 You may lend with interest to a foreigner, but not to your fellow Israelite; if you keep this command the Lord your God will bless you in all you undertake in the land you are about to enter to possess. 23:21 When you make a vow to the Lord your God you must not delay in fulfilling it, for otherwise he 34 will surely 35 hold you accountable as a sinner. 36 23:22 If you refrain from making a vow, it will not be sinful. 23:23 Whatever you vow, you must be careful to do what you have promised, such as what you have vowed to the Lord your God as a freewill offering. 23:24 When you enter the vineyard of your neighbor you may eat as many grapes as you please, 37 but you must not take away any in a container. 38 23:25 When you go into the ripe grain fields of your neighbor you may pluck off the kernels with your hand, 39 but you must not use a sickle on your neighbor’s ripe grain.
24:1 If a man marries a woman and she does not please him because he has found something offensive 40 in her, then he may draw up a divorce document, give it to her, and evict her from his house. 24:2 When she has left him 41 she may go and become someone else’s wife. 24:3 If the second husband rejects 42 her and then divorces her, 43 gives her the papers, and evicts her from his house, or if the second husband who married her dies, 24:4 her first husband who divorced her is not permitted to remarry 44 her after she has become ritually impure, for that is offensive to the Lord. 45 You must not bring guilt on the land 46 which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
24:5 When a man is newly married, he need not go into 47 the army nor be obligated in any way; he must be free to stay at home for a full year and bring joy to 48 the wife he has married.
24:6 One must not take either lower or upper millstones as security on a loan, for that is like taking a life itself as security. 49
24:7 If a man is found kidnapping a person from among his fellow Israelites, 50 and regards him as mere property 51 and sells him, that kidnapper 52 must die. In this way you will purge 53 evil from among you.
24:8 Be careful during an outbreak of leprosy to follow precisely 54 all that the Levitical priests instruct you; as I have commanded them, so you should do. 24:9 Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam 55 along the way after you left Egypt.
24:10 When you make any kind of loan to your neighbor, you may not go into his house to claim what he is offering as security. 56 24:11 You must stand outside and the person to whom you are making the loan will bring out to you what he is offering as security. 57 24:12 If the person is poor you may not use what he gives you as security for a covering. 58 24:13 You must by all means 59 return to him at sunset the item he gave you as security so that he may sleep in his outer garment and bless you for it; it will be considered a just 60 deed by the Lord your God.
24:14 You must not oppress a lowly and poor servant, whether one from among your fellow Israelites 61 or from the resident foreigners who are living in your land and villages. 62 24:15 You must pay his wage that very day before the sun sets, for he is poor and his life depends on it. Otherwise he will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
24:16 Fathers must not be put to death for what their children 63 do, nor children for what their fathers do; each must be put to death for his own sin.
24:17 You must not pervert justice due a resident foreigner or an orphan, or take a widow’s garment as security for a loan. 24:18 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I am commanding you to do all this. 24:19 Whenever you reap your harvest in your field and leave some unraked grain there, 64 you must not return to get it; it should go to the resident foreigner, orphan, and widow so that the Lord your God may bless all the work you do. 65 24:20 When you beat your olive tree you must not repeat the procedure; 66 the remaining olives belong to the resident foreigner, orphan, and widow. 24:21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard you must not do so a second time; 67 they should go to the resident foreigner, orphan, and widow. 24:22 Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt; therefore, I am commanding you to do all this.
1 tn These technical Hebrew terms (חֻקִּים [khuqqim] and מִשְׁפָּטִים [mishpatim]) occur repeatedly throughout the Book of Deuteronomy to describe the covenant stipulations to which Israel had been called to subscribe (see, in this chapter alone, vv. 1, 5, 6, 8). The word חֻקִּים derives from the verb חֹק (khoq, “to inscribe; to carve”) and מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishpatim) from שָׁפַט (shafat, “to judge”). They are virtually synonymous and are used interchangeably in Deuteronomy.
2 tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 31, 37).
3 tn Heb “bruised by crushing,” which many English versions take to refer to crushed testicles (NAB, NRSV, NLT); TEV “who has been castrated.”
4 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.”
5 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.
5 tn Or “a person born of an illegitimate marriage.”
6 tn Heb “enter the assembly of the
7 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).
8 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.
9 tn Heb “enter the assembly of the
9 tn Heb “hired against you.”
11 tn Heb “the
12 tn The verb אָהַב (’ahav, “love”) here and commonly elsewhere in the Book of Deuteronomy speaks of God’s elective grace toward Israel. See note on the word “loved” in Deut 4:37.
13 tn Heb “brother.”
14 tn Heb “sojourner.”
15 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.
17 tn Heb “evil.” The context makes clear that this is a matter of ritual impurity, not moral impurity, so it is “evil” in the sense that it disbars one from certain religious activity.
19 tn Heb “nocturnal happening.” The Hebrew term קָרֶה (qareh) merely means “to happen” so the phrase here is euphemistic (a “night happening”) for some kind of bodily emission such as excrement or semen. Such otherwise normal physical functions rendered one ritually unclean whether accidental or not. See Lev 15:16-18; 22:4.
21 tn Heb “so that one may go outside there.” This expression is euphemistic.
23 tn Heb “sit.” This expression is euphemistic.
24 tn Heb “with it”; the referent (the spade mentioned at the beginning of the verse) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
25 tn Heb “what comes from you,” a euphemism.
25 tn Heb “give [over] your enemies.”
26 tn Heb “nakedness of a thing”; NLT “any shameful thing.” The expression עֶרְוַת דָּבָר (’ervat davar) refers specifically to sexual organs and, by extension, to any function associated with them. There are some aspects of human life that are so personal and private that they ought not be publicly paraded. Cultically speaking, even God is offended by such impropriety (cf. Gen 9:22-23; Lev 18:6-12, 16-19; 20:11, 17-21). See B. Seevers, NIDOTTE 3:528-30.
27 tn The Hebrew text includes “from his master,” but this would be redundant in English style.
29 tn Heb “gates.”
31 tn The Hebrew term translated “sacred prostitute” here (קְדֵשָׁה [qÿdeshah], from קַדֵשׁ [qadesh, “holy”]; cf. NIV “shrine prostitute”; NASB “cult prostitute”; NRSV, TEV, NLT “temple prostitute”) refers to the pagan fertility cults that employed female and male prostitutes in various rituals designed to evoke agricultural and even human fecundity (cf. Gen 38:21-22; 1 Kgs 14:24; 15:12; 22:47; 2 Kgs 23:7; Hos 4:14). The Hebrew term for a regular, noncultic (i.e., “secular”) female prostitute is זוֹנָה (zonah).
32 tn Heb “daughters.”
33 tn The male cultic prostitute was called קָדֵשׁ (qadesh; see note on the phrase “sacred prostitute” earlier in this verse). The colloquial Hebrew term for a “secular” male prostitute (i.e., a sodomite) is the disparaging epithet כֶּלֶב (kelev, “dog”) which occurs in the following verse (cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB).
34 tn Heb “sons.”
33 tn Here the Hebrew term זוֹנָה (zonah) refers to a noncultic (i.e., “secular”) female prostitute; see note on the phrase “sacred prostitute” in v. 17.
34 tn Heb “of a dog.” This is the common Hebrew term for a noncultic (i.e., “secular”) male prostitute. See note on the phrase “sacred male prostitute” in v. 17.
35 tn Heb “to your brother” (likewise in the following verse). Since this is not limited to actual siblings, “fellow Israelite” is used in the translation (cf. NAB, NASB “countrymen”).
37 tn Heb “the
38 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which is reflected in the translation by “surely.”
39 tn Heb “and it will be a sin to you”; NIV, NCV, NLT “be guilty of sin.”
39 tn Heb “grapes according to your appetite, your fullness.”
40 tn Heb “in your container”; NAB, NIV “your basket.”
41 sn For the continuation of these practices into NT times see Matt 12:1-8; Mark 2:23-28; Luke 6:1-5.
43 tn Heb “nakedness of a thing.” The Hebrew phrase עֶרְוַת דָּבָר (’ervat davar) refers here to some gross sexual impropriety (see note on “indecent” in Deut 23:14). Though the term usually has to do only with indecent exposure of the genitals, it can also include such behavior as adultery (cf. Lev 18:6-18; 20:11, 17, 20-21; Ezek 22:10; 23:29; Hos 2:10).
45 tn Heb “his house.”
47 tn Heb “hates.” See note on the word “other” in Deut 21:15.
48 tn Heb “writes her a document of divorce.”
49 tn Heb “to return to take her to be his wife.”
50 sn The issue here is not divorce and its grounds per se but prohibition of remarriage to a mate whom one has previously divorced.
51 tn Heb “cause the land to sin” (so KJV, ASV).
51 tn Heb “go out with.”
52 tc For the MT’s reading Piel שִׂמַּח (simmakh, “bring joy to”), the Syriac and others read שָׂמַח (samakh, “enjoy”).
53 sn Taking millstones as security on a loan would amount to taking the owner’s own life in pledge, since the millstones were the owner’s means of earning a living and supporting his family.
55 tn Heb “from his brothers, from the sons of Israel.” The terms “brothers” and “sons of Israel” are in apposition; the second defines the first more specifically.
56 tn Or “and enslaves him.”
57 tn Heb “that thief.”
58 tn Heb “burn.” See note on the word “purge” in Deut 19:19.
57 tn Heb “to watch carefully and to do.”
59 sn What the
61 tn Heb “his pledge.” This refers to something offered as pledge of repayment, i.e., as security for the debt.
63 tn Heb “his pledge.”
65 tn Heb “may not lie down in his pledge.” What is in view is the use of clothing as guarantee for the repayment of loans, a matter already addressed elsewhere (Deut 23:19-20; 24:6; cf. Exod 22:25-26; Lev 25:35-37). Cf. NAB “you shall not sleep in the mantle he gives as a pledge”; NRSV “in the garment given you as the pledge.”
67 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation seeks to reflect with “by all means.”
68 tn Or “righteous” (so NIV, NLT).
69 tn Heb “your brothers,” but not limited only to actual siblings; cf. NASB “your (+ own NAB) countrymen.”
70 tn Heb “who are in your land in your gates.” The word “living” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
71 tn Heb “sons” (so NASB; twice in this verse). Many English versions, including the KJV, read “children” here.
73 tn Heb “in the field.”
74 tn Heb “of your hands.” This law was later applied in the story of Ruth who, as a poor widow, was allowed by generous Boaz to glean in his fields (Ruth 2:1-13).
75 tn Heb “knock down after you.”
77 tn Heb “glean after you.”