Deuteronomy 23:12

23:12 You are to have a place outside the camp to serve as a latrine. ¹ 

Deuteronomy 2:15

2:15 Indeed, it was the very hand of the Lord that eliminated them from within ²  the camp until they were all gone.

Deuteronomy 23:9

Purity in Personal Hygiene

23:9 When you go out as an army against your enemies, guard yourselves against anything impure. ³ 

Deuteronomy 23:11

23:11 When evening arrives he must wash himself with water and then at sunset he may reenter the camp.

Deuteronomy 29:11

29:11 your infants, your wives, and the ⁴  foreigners living in your encampment, those who chop wood and those who carry water –

Deuteronomy 23:10

23:10 If there is someone among you who is impure because of some nocturnal emission, ⁵  he must leave the camp; he may not reenter it immediately.

Deuteronomy 23:14

23:14 For the Lord your God walks about in the middle of your camp to deliver you and defeat ⁶  your enemies for you. Therefore your camp should be holy, so that he does not see anything indecent ⁷  among you and turn away from you.

Deuteronomy 2:14

2:14 Now the length of time it took for us to go from Kadesh Barnea to the crossing of Wadi Zered was thirty-eight years, time for all the military men of that generation to die, just as the Lord had vowed to them.

[23:12]  ¹ tn Heb “so that one may go outside there.” This expression is euphemistic.

[2:15]  ² tn Heb “from the middle of.” Although many recent English versions leave this expression untranslated, the point seems to be that these soldiers did not die in battle but “within the camp.”

[23:9]  ³ 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.

[29:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “your.”

[23:10]  ⁵ 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.

[23:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “give [over] your enemies.”

[23:14]  ⁷ 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.