Deuteronomy 23:3

_AN AMMONITE OR MOABITE SHALL NOT ENTER INTO THE CONGREGATION OF THE LORD; EVEN TO THEIR TENTH GENERATION SHALL THEY NOT ENTER INTO THE CONGREGATION OF THE LORD FOR EVER:_ Even to their tenth generation shall they not enter. Many eminent writers think that this law of exclusion was applicable only to males; at all events, that a definite is used for an indefinite number (Nehemiah 13:1). Since God cannot do evil, the declaration must be considered not to foster enmity against the people (Ruth 4:10; 2 Kings 10:2), but against their crime; and it was the more necessary to make it at this time, as many of the Israelites being established on the east side of Jordan, in the immediate neighbourhood of those people; God

3._An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter. _As God has lately prohibited His people from all connection and alliance with the Canaanitish nations, so He now distinguishes between the aliens, and shews upon what conditions, and whom they might admit (into the Church. (305)) The Moabites and Ammonites He altogether rejects; because they not only refused the common rites of humanity to the people, but also took arms against them, and even hired Balaam to curse them. They were the descendants of Lot, and ought to have embraced the children of Abraham as brethren. It was, then, inexcusable barbarity in them to make a violent attack upon those who had voluntarily offered them peace; who had promised by their messengers that they would make their way without injury or wrong; and who finally had besought that a passage might be granted them, provided they honestly paid the price of bread and wat...

1-8 We ought to value the privileges of God's people, both for ourselves and for our children, above all other advantages. No personal blemishes, no crimes of our forefathers, no difference of nation, shuts us out under the Christian dispensation. But an unsound heart will deprive us of blessings; and a bad example, or an unsuitable marriage, may shut our children from them....

Verse Deuteronomy 23:3. _AN AMMONITE OR MOABITE_] These nations were subjected for their impiety and wickedness, (see Deuteronomy 23:4; Deuteronomy 23:5), to peculiar disgrace, and on this account were not permitted to hold any office among the Israelites. But this did not disqualify them from being _proselytes_: Ruth, who was a Moabitess, was married to Boaz, and she became one of the progenitors of our Lord. _EVEN TO THEIR TENTH GENERATION_] That is, _for ever_, as the next clause explains; see Nehemiah 13:1....

This law forbids only the naturalization of those against whom it is directed. It does not forbid their dwelling in the land; and seems to refer rather to the nations than to individuals. It was not understood at any rate to interdict marriage with a Moabitess; compare Ruth 1:4; Ruth 4:13. Ruth however, and her sister were doubtless proselytes. Deuteronomy 23:4 Compare the marginal reference. The Moabites and the Ammonites are to be regarded as clans of the same stock rather than as two independent nations, and as acting together. Compare 2 Chronicles 20:1....

EXPOSITION CIVIL RIGHTS. WHO MAY AND WHO MAY NOT ENTER INTO THE CONGREGATION. UNCLEANNESS IN THE CAMP TO BE AVOIDED. RECEPTION OF FUGITIVE SLAVES. LICENTIOUS PERSONS TO BE REMOVED, AND GIFTS THE PRICE OF IMPURITY TO BE REFUSED. LAWS REGARDING USURY, VOWS, AND

AN AMMONITE OR MOABITE SHALL NOT ENTER INTO THE CONGREGATION OF THE LORD,.... Or marry an Israelitish woman, as Jarchi, and so the Targum of Jonathan, "the male Ammonites and Moabites are not fit to take a wife of the congregation of the Lord;'' for the Jews restrain this to men, because it is, as Aben Ezra observes, an Ammonite, not an Ammonitess, a Moabite, not a Moabitess; they allow that females of those nations might be married to Israelites, that is, provided they were proselytesses, as Ruth was m: EVEN TO THEIR TENTH GENERATION, SHALL THEY NOT ENTER INTO THE CONGREGATION OF THE LORD FOR EVER; that is, not only to the tenth generation, but for ever; and this law was understood as in force in Nehemiah's time, which was more than ten generations from the making of it; though now, as these nations are no more a distinct people, they suppose it is no longer binding n. m Misn. Yebam...

19. THE CONGREGATION OF JEHOVAH AND ITS CONSTITUTION AND HOLINESS CHAPTER 23 _ 1. The constitution of the congregation of Jehovah (Deuteronomy 23:1)_ 2. The cleanness of the camp in time of war (Deuteronomy 23:9) 3. Concerning the escaped slave and the harlot (Deuteronomy 23:15) 4. Usury forbidden (Deuteronomy 23:19) 5. Concerning vows (Deuteronomy 23:21) 6. The neighbor's vineyard and field ...

Classes to be refused admission into the religious community. Deuteronomy 23:1. Here two, but in Leviticus 22:24 two additional methods of making eunuchs are mentioned. Such mutilations were required in Syrian and other religions, and for that reason disqualify for Yahweh's Church; but see Isaiah 56:4 f. Deuteronomy 23:2. bastard: the offspring of an incestuous union. THE ASSEMBLY OF THE LORD (Yahweh): P's designation of Israel as a religious community. The expression belongs almost wholly to post-exilic Judaism, whence and for other (unconvincing) reasons Bertholet dates...

MOABITE. Hebrew, masculine. Therefore not excluding Ruth the Moabitess. Matthew 1:5. Compare Ruth 1:14....