EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

Deuteronomy 23:1-25

Deuteronomy: God’s Law of Love

Love and Obey the *LORD your God

Deuteronomy

Philip Smith

Chapter 23

v1 ‘A person may squeeze hard or cut off the sex parts of a man. The man with the physical damage cannot go to the *LORD’s house.

v2 A person cannot go to the *LORD’s house if his father and mother are not both *Israelites. Also, his *descendants can never go there, not even after 10 *generations.

v3 No *Ammonite or *Moabite or any of their children can go to the *LORD’s house, not even after 10 *generations. v4 They refused to give bread and water to you on your way out of Egypt. They hired Beor’s son, Balaam from Pethor in Aram Naharaim, to *curse you. v5 But the *LORD your God would not listen to Balaam. Instead, the *LORD your God turned the *curse into a *blessing for you. The *LORD your God did that because he loves you. v6 Do not ask for their peace or their friendship for as long as you live.

v7 Do not hate a person from the country called Edom. That is because he is your relative. Do not hate an *Egyptian, because you lived as strangers in his country. v8 The third *generation of their children can go to the *LORD’s house.’

These people could not belong to the *Lord’s people. They must not join in *worship. People that were not perfect in their bodies could not give *offerings to the *Lord. However, they could eat a share of the *offerings. Sometimes the *Canaanites cut off a man’s sex parts on purpose. Sometimes an *Israelite man or woman married someone with a different religion. Their children could not belong to the *Lord’s people. The *Israelites did not include *Ammonites and *Moabites as part of their nation. They did not help the *Israelites when they left Egypt. Balaam had tried to *curse the *Israelites. (See Numbers Chapter s 22-24.) But because God loved the *Israelites, the *curse became a *blessing. *Israelites should be friends with the people from Edom. They were the *descendants of Esau, Jacob’s brother. And the *Israelites were *descendants of Jacob. Also *Israelites should be friends with the *Egyptians, because the *Israelites had lived in Egypt in the past.

Later, things changed. They would accept into God’s family a person without sex parts. But that person had to *keep the *covenant. (See Isaiah 56:3.) Although Ruth was a *Moabite, she became part of God’s people. The people in Egypt will say, ‘There is no other God.’ (See Isaiah 45:14.) However, God did not accept the people from Edom. (See Obadiah 1:18.)

There are verses which show that many kinds of people can enter the *kingdom of God. They do not have to belong to a particular nation. Here are two of those verses: ‘I will mention Egypt and Babylonia among those who know me.’ (See Psalms 87:4.) ‘There is neither *Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. You are all united when you belong to Jesus Christ.’ (See Galatians 3:28.) Paul uses the word ‘Greek’ to mean anyone who is not a *Jew.

v9 ‘When you are in a camp at the time of war, avoid every evil thing. v10 Someone may become not *clean. During the night, a man may produce liquid from his sex part. If so, he must go outside the camp and he must stay there. v11 When the evening comes, he can wash himself. When the sun goes down, he can return to the camp.

v12 Have a place outside the camp where you can go to the toilet. v13 Have a tool with which to dig. When you go to the toilet, use the tool to cover up the waste from your body. v14 The *LORD your God is with you in your camp. He will protect you. He will cause you to defeat your enemies. Therefore, you must keep your camp *holy. God may see something that is not clean. If he does, he may not continue to go with you.’

Laws about health were important. The principle in the law was this. Anything that comes from a person’s body is ‘unclean’. The *Israelites must have clean bodies and clean clothes. They must bury carefully the waste from their bodies. If camps were not clean, then disease would spread very quickly. God was present in the camp. If they did not keep the camp *holy and clean, God would not stay with them.

Jesus makes a connection between what makes a person unclean in the body and not *clean in the *spirit. (See Mark 7:20-23.) In Hebrews 10:22, the writer tells Christians to come near to God. The writer says that they must have a *clean conscience. They must wash their bodies with pure water. That does not refer to a physical wash. Instead, it means that people must live in a moral way.

v15 ‘A slave may escape from his master and he may come to you. Do not hand him over to his master. v16 The slave shall live wherever he likes among you. He can choose any town in which he wants to live. You must be kind to him.

v17 No *Israelite man or woman can sell his or her body for sex in a *temple. v18 Somebody might have money that they had earned in that way. They must not bring it into the house of the *LORD your God. You must not pay that kind of money because of a promise to God. The *LORD your God hates those acts.

v19 Do not charge extra money when you lend food, money or anything else to another *Israelite. v20 You can charge a foreigner extra money. But you must not charge another *Israelite extra money. Then the *LORD your God will *bless everything that you do. He will *bless you in the country that you will live in.

v21 If you promise something to the *LORD your God, do not be slow to *keep your promise. Otherwise the *LORD your God will demand that you *keep it. Then you will be guilty of *sin. v22 If you do not promise something, you will not be guilty. v23 You must do everything that you promise to do. You chose to promise it to the *LORD your God.

v24 You can go into your neighbour’s field of *grapes. You can eat all the *grapes that you want. But you must not put any *grapes in a basket. v25 You can go into your neighbour’s field of corn. You can pick with your hands the part of the corn that contains seeds. But you must not cut any corn with a tool.’

Sometimes, when a slave was in a foreign country, he ran away from his master. The law allowed him to live in safety wherever he wanted to live. The *Israelites must not make these people to be slaves again.

*Israelites must not sell their bodies for sex. They certainly must not do that in ceremonies of religion. The *Canaanites did that. They *worshipped the false female god called Astarte. If anybody earned money in that way, he or she must not give the money to God. God hated it when people used their bodies in that way.

*Israelites sometimes lent money to other *Israelites. But they must not charge people for money that they lent. Usually they lent money because people were poor. The *Israelites could charge money for what they lent to foreigners. That was because foreigners were usually merchants or traders. They were not poor. They used the money for their business. Jesus told his followers to lend and to expect nothing back. (See Luke 6:35.)

Anybody was free to promise something to God. But he was also free not to promise something. However, if he did promise something, he must *keep his promise. And he must not postpone the day when he did that.

The law allowed people to pick *grapes. And they could pick from the fields the part of corn that contained seeds. People could pick them when they were hungry. But they must not take more than they could eat. That would rob their neighbour. The *Pharisees spoke badly about Jesus’ followers. But Jesus said that they could eat the corn. (See Luke 6:1-5.) Those laws taught about how to look after other people.

Lord ~ a name for God. It translates the word ‘Adonai’ in the Hebrew language, which means ‘my ruler’. The word ‘lord’ (without a capital letter) means an ordinary ruler.

LORD ~ God gave this special name to himself. It translates the word ‘Yahweh’ in the Hebrew language. It is the Covenant name for God. It links to the words ‘I am’; it means that God has always been here.

covenant ~ the special promise that God made to his people. God’s covenant with the Israelites established a relationship between him and them. But they must obey him.