Deuteronomy 23:3-5

23:3 An Ammonite or Moabite ¹  may not enter the assembly of the Lord; to the tenth generation none of their descendants shall ever ²  do so, ³  23:4 for they did not meet you with food and water on the way as you came from Egypt, and furthermore, they hired ⁴  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 ⁵  the curse to a blessing, for the Lord your God loves ⁶  you.

Deuteronomy 23:1

Purity in Public Worship

23:1 A man with crushed ⁷  or severed genitals ⁸  may not enter the assembly of the Lord. ⁹ 

Deuteronomy 11:1

Reiteration of the Call to Obedience

11:1 You must love the Lord your God and do what he requires; keep his statutes, ordinances, and commandments ¹⁰  at all times.

Deuteronomy 11:5-7

11:5 They did not see ¹¹  what he did to you in the desert before you reached this place, 11:6 or what he did to Dathan and Abiram, ¹²  sons of Eliab the Reubenite, ¹³  when the earth opened its mouth in the middle of the Israelite camp ¹⁴  and swallowed them, their families, ¹⁵  their tents, and all the property they brought with them. ¹⁶  11:7 I am speaking to you ¹⁷  because you are the ones who saw all the great deeds of the Lord!

Nehemiah 4:3

4:3 Then Tobiah the Ammonite, who was close by, said, “If even a fox were to climb up on what they are building, it would break down their wall of stones!”

Nehemiah 4:7

4:7 (4:1) ¹⁸  When Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the people of Ashdod heard that the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem ¹⁹  had moved ahead and that the breaches had begun to be closed, they were very angry.

Nehemiah 13:1-3

Further Reforms by Nehemiah

13:1 On that day the book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing ²⁰  of the people. They found ²¹  written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite may ever enter the assembly of God, 13:2 for they had not met the Israelites with food ²²  and water, but instead had hired Balaam to curse them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into blessing.) 13:3 When they heard the law, they removed from Israel all who were of mixed ancestry.

[23:3]  ¹ 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).

[23:3]  ² 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.

[23:3]  ³ tn Heb “enter the assembly of the Lord.” The phrase “do so” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[23:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “hired against you.”

[23:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “the Lord your God changed.” The phrase “the Lord your God” has not been included in the translation here for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy. Moreover, use of the pronoun “he” could create confusion regarding the referent (the Lord or Balaam).

[23:5]  ⁶ 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.

[23:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “bruised by crushing,” which many English versions take to refer to crushed testicles (NAB, NRSV, NLT); TEV “who has been castrated.”

[23:1]  ⁸ 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.”

[23:1]  ⁹ 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.

[11:1]  ¹⁰ tn This collocation of technical terms for elements of the covenant text lends support to its importance and also signals a new section of paraenesis in which Moses will exhort Israel to covenant obedience. The Hebrew term מִשְׁמָרוֹת (mishmarot, “obligations”) sums up the three terms that follow – חֻקֹּת (khuqot), מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishppatim), and מִצְוֹת (mitsot).

[11:5]  ¹¹ tn See note on these same words in v. 3.

[11:6]  ¹² sn Dathan and Abiram. These two (along with others) had challenged Moses’ leadership in the desert with the result that the earth beneath them opened up and they and their families disappeared (Num 16:1-3, 31-35).

[11:6]  ¹³ tn Or “the descendant of Reuben”; Heb “son of Reuben.”

[11:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in the midst of all Israel” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV); NASB “among all Israel.” In the Hebrew text these words appear at the end of the verse, but they are logically connected with the verbs. To make this clear the translation places the phrase after the first verb.

[11:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “their houses,” referring to all who lived in their household. Cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT “households.”

[11:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and all the substance which was at their feet.”

[11:7]  ¹⁷ tn On the addition of these words in the translation see note on “They did not see” in v. 3.

[4:7]  ¹⁸ sn Chapter 4 begins here in the Hebrew text (BHS). See the note at 4:1.

[4:7]  ¹⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[13:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “ears.”

[13:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “it was found.” The Hebrew verb is passive.

[13:2]  ²² tn Heb “bread.” The Hebrew term is generic here, however, referring to more than bread alone.