Deuteronomy 23-25

Legacy Standard Bible

Those Who May Not Enter the Assembly

23 “^(A)No one who is ^[a]emasculated or has his male organ cut off shall enter the assembly of Yahweh. ² No one of illegitimate birth shall enter the assembly of Yahweh; even to the tenth generation, none of his seed shall enter the assembly of Yahweh. ^3 (B)No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of Yahweh; even to the tenth generation, none of their seed shall ever enter the assembly of Yahweh, ^4 (C)because they did not meet you with ^[b]food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you ^(D)Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of ^[c]Mesopotamia, to curse you. ⁵ Nevertheless, Yahweh your God was not willing to listen to Balaam, but Yahweh your God ^(E)turned the curse into a blessing for you because Yahweh your God ^(F)loves you. ^6 (G)You shall never seek their peace or their prosperity all your days.

⁷ “You shall not abhor an Edomite, for ^(H)he is your brother; you shall not abhor an Egyptian, ^(I)for you were a sojourner in his land. ⁸ The sons of the third generation who are born to them may enter the assembly of Yahweh.

⁹ “When you go out as ^[d]an army against your enemies, you shall keep yourself from every evil thing.

¹⁰ “^(J)If there is among you any man who is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he must go outside the camp; he may not ^[e]reenter the camp. ¹¹ But it shall be when evening approaches, he shall bathe himself with water, and at sundown he may ^[f]reenter the camp.

¹² “You shall also have a place outside the camp and go out there, ¹³ and you shall have a ^[g]spade among your tools, and it shall be when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and shall turn ^[h]to cover up your excrement. ¹⁴ Since ^(K)Yahweh your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to give your enemies over to you, therefore your camp must be ^(L)holy; and He must not see ^[i]anything indecent among you, ^[j]or He will turn away from you.

¹⁵ “^(M)You shall not hand over to his master a slave who has ^[k]escaped from his master to you. ¹⁶ He shall live with you in your midst, in the place which he shall choose in one of your gates of the towns where it pleases him; ^(N)you shall not mistreat him.

¹⁷ “^(O)None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, ^(P)nor shall any of the sons of Israel be a cult prostitute. ¹⁸ You shall not bring the hire of a harlot or the wages of a ^[l](Q)dog into the house of Yahweh your God for any votive offering, for both of these are an abomination to Yahweh your God.

¹⁹ “^(R)You shall not charge interest to your brother: interest on money, food, or anything that may be loaned at interest. ^20 (S)You may charge interest to a foreigner, but to your brother you shall not charge interest, so that ^(T)Yahweh your God may bless you in all ^[m]that you send forth your hand to do in the land which you are about to enter to ^[n]possess.

²¹ “^(U)When you make a vow to Yahweh your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for Yahweh your God will surely require it of you; and it will be a sin in you. ²² However, if you refrain from vowing, it will not be a sin in you. ²³ You shall be careful and do what goes out from your lips, just as you have voluntarily vowed to Yahweh your God that which you spoke with your mouth.

²⁴ “When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, then you may eat grapes ^[o]until you are fully satisfied, but you shall not put any in your ^[p]basket.

²⁵ “^(V)When you enter your neighbor’s standing grain, then you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor’s standing grain.

Statutes About Divorce

24 “If a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens ^[q]that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some ^(W)indecency in her, and ^(X)he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house, ² and she goes out of his house and goes and becomes another man’s wife, ³ and if the latter husband ^[r]turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife, ⁴ then her ^(Y)former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before Yahweh, and you shall not bring sin on the land which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance.

⁵ “^(Z)When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out with the army nor be charged with any duty; he shall be free at home one year and shall ^(AA)give gladness to his wife whom he has taken.

Remember You Were Slaves in Egypt

⁶ “No one shall take a handmill or an upper millstone in pledge, for he would be taking a life in pledge.

⁷ “^(AB)If a man is ^[s]caught kidnapping any of his brothers of the sons of Israel, and he mistreats him or sells him, then that thief shall die; so you shall purge the evil from among you.

⁸ “^(AC)Take care against ^[t]an infection of leprosy, to be very careful and to do according to all that the Levitical priests instruct you; as I have commanded them, so you shall be careful to do. ⁹ Remember what Yahweh your God did ^(AD)to Miriam on the way as you came out of Egypt.

¹⁰ “^(AE)When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not enter his house to take his deposit. ¹¹ You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the deposit out to you. ¹² Now if he is an afflicted man, you shall not sleep with his deposit. ^13 (AF)When the sun goes down you shall surely return the deposit to him, that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you; and ^(AG)it will be righteousness for you before Yahweh your God.

¹⁴ “^(AH)You shall not oppress a hired person who is afflicted and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of your sojourners who is in your land within your gates. ^15 (AI)You shall give him his wages on his day ^[u]before the sun goes down, for he is afflicted and sets his soul on it, so that ^(AJ)he will not cry against you to Yahweh and it become sin in you.

¹⁶ “^(AK)Fathers shall not be put to death ^[v]for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death ^[w]for their fathers; each shall be put to death for his own sin.

¹⁷ “^(AL)You shall not pervert the justice ^[x]due a sojourner or ^[y]an orphan, nor ^(AM)take a widow’s garment in pledge. ¹⁸ But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and that Yahweh your God redeemed you from there; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing.

¹⁹ “^(AN)When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be ^(AO)for the sojourner, for the ^[z]orphan, and for the widow, in order that Yahweh your God ^(AP)may bless you in all the work of your hands. ^20 (AQ)When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs after you finish; it shall be ^(AR)for the sojourner, for the ^[aa]orphan, and for the widow.

²¹ “When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it after you finish; it shall be for the sojourner, for the ^[ab]orphan, and for the widow. ²² And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing.

25 “^(AS)If there is a dispute between men and they go to court for judgment, and ^[ac]the judges judge their case, ^(AT)and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked, ² then it shall be if the wicked man ^[ad](AU)deserves to be struck, the judge shall then make him lie down and be struck in his presence with the number of stripes according to his ^[ae]guilt. ^3 (AV)He may strike him forty times but no more, lest he strike him with many more stripes than these and your brother be ^(AW)dishonored in your eyes.

⁴ “^(AX)You shall not muzzle the ox while it is threshing.

⁵ “If brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son, then the wife of the one who died shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. ^(AY)Her husband’s brother shall go in to her and take her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. ⁶ And it will be that the firstborn whom she bears shall ^[af]assume the name of his dead brother, so that ^(AZ)his name will not be blotted out from Israel. ^7 (BA)But if the man does not desire to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to raise up a name for his brother in Israel; he is not willing to perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.’ ⁸ Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak to him. And if he stands and says, ‘I do not desire to take her,’ ^9 (BB)then his brother’s wife shall come to him in the sight of the elders and pull his sandal off his foot and ^(BC)spit in his face; and she shall answer and say, ‘Thus it is done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.’ ¹⁰ And in Israel his name shall be called, ‘The house of him whose sandal is removed.’

¹¹ “If two men, a man and his brother, are struggling together, and the wife of one comes near to deliver her husband from the hand of the one who is striking him, and she puts out her hand and seizes his genitals, ¹² then you shall cut off her ^[ag]hand; ^[ah](BD)you shall not show pity.

¹³ “^(BE)You shall not have in your bag ^[ai]differing weights, a large and a small. ¹⁴ You shall not have in your house ^[aj]differing measures, a large and a small. ¹⁵ You shall have a full and just weight; you shall have a full and just ^[ak]measure, ^(BF)that your days may be prolonged in the ^[al]land which Yahweh your God gives you. ¹⁶ For ^(BG)everyone who does these things, everyone who acts unjustly, is an abomination to Yahweh your God.

¹⁷ “^(BH)Remember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt, ¹⁸ how he met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear, but you were faint and weary; and he ^(BI)did not ^[am]fear God. ¹⁹ Therefore it will be, when Yahweh your God has given you ^(BJ)rest from all your surrounding enemies, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance to ^[an]possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you must not forget.