Deuteronomy 23:6

_THOU SHALT NOT SEEK THEIR PEACE NOR THEIR PROSPERITY ALL THY DAYS FOR EVER._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

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....

i. e. “thou shalt not invite them robe on terms of amity with thee (compare Deuteronomy 20:10 ff), nor make their welfare thy care”: compare Ezra 9:12. There is no injunction to hatred or retaliation (compare Deuteronomy 2:9, Deuteronomy 2:19); but later history contains frequent record of hostility between Israel and these nations....

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

THOU SHALT NOT SEEK THEIR PEACE NOR THEIR PROSPERITY ALL THY DAYS FOR EVER. Not that they were to retain malice towards them, or indulge a spirit of revenge, or not do them any good offices in a private way, which is contrary to the law of love; nor does this contradict any offices of kindness and friendship that might be performed in a personal way: so we find that David had a kindness for Hanun the Ammonite, and showed it, though ill rewarded for it, yet is not blamed for doing it; 2 Samuel 10:2 for these words respect not persons in a private capacity, but the people of Israel as a body politic, who, as such, were not to carry on trade and commerce with those people, nor intermarry with them, nor make leagues and enter into alliances with them; the reason of which was, because being very near neighbours to them, had there not been such a law, as a wall of partition between them, they...

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...

_VER._ 6. _THOU SHALT NOT SEEK THEIR PEACE_— All that is here forbidden is, the entering into public confederacies and alliances with them; notwithstanding which prohibition, they were bound to treat those people according to the rule of common justice and humanity. The words may be considered as a declaration of the inflexible resolution of these two nations to maintain idolatry, and to keep up the same hostile spirit towards the Hebrews, which their ancestors had begun; otherwise, if they had publicly renounced their idolatry, and courted the favour of the Israelites, this law would have been abrogated of course, the reasons for which it was made then ceasing....

1. EXCLUSION FROM THE CONGREGATION (Deuteronomy 23:1-14) (1) PERMANENT EXCLUSION FOR THE SEXUALLY MUTILATED, CHILDREN BORN OF ILLEGITIMATE UNION AND CERTAIN ENEMY PEOPLE (Deuteronomy 23:1-6) He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the assembly of Jehovah. 2 A bastard shall not enter into the assembly of Jehovah; even to the tenth generation shall none of his enter into the assembly of Jehovah. 3 An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the assembly of Jehovah; even to the tenth generation shall none belonging to them enter into the assembly of Jehovah for ever; 4 because they met you not with bread and with water in the way, when ye came forth out of Egypt, and because they hired against thee Balaam the son of Beor f

LAWS REGARDING ADMITTANCE TO THE CONGREGATION, CLEANLINESS IN THE CAMP, UNCHASTITY, USURY, AND VOWS 1. Shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord] i.e. not merely as priests (see Leviticus 21:16) but as ordinary members of the nation of Israel, all of whom are 'holy unto the Lord.' The reference in this v. is probably to the self-mutilation practised by the devotees of certain heathen gods, and alluded to by St. Paul in Galatians 5:12 : cp. Deuteronomy 14:1....