Read Amplified Bible, 2015 Deuteronomy 23 Bible Online

Deuteronomy 23 - Amplified Bible, 2015 bible

Deuteronomy 23

¹"He who has been castrated by having his testicles crushed or his male organ cut off shall not enter the congregation of the LORD.

²A person of[1] illegitimate birth shall not enter the assembly of the LORD; none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation.

³An Ammonite or[2] Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the LORD; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the LORD,

⁴because they did not meet you with bread (food) and water on the road as you came out of Egypt, and because they hired [to act] against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.

⁵Nevertheless, the LORD your God was not willing to listen to Balaam, but the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you because the LORD your God has loved you.

⁶You shall never seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days.

⁷"You shall not detest an Edomite, for he is your brother [Esau's descendant]. You shall not detest an Egyptian, because you were a stranger (resident alien, foreigner) in his land.

⁸Their children of the third generation who are born to them may enter the assembly of the LORD.

⁹"When you go out as an army [to fight] against your enemies, you shall keep yourselves from every evil [thing].

¹⁰"If there is any man among you who is [ceremonially] unclean because of nocturnal emission, then he must go outside the camp; he shall not come back to the camp.

¹¹But when evening comes, he shall bathe in water, and at sundown he may return to the camp.

¹²"You shall also have a place outside the camp to which you may go,

¹³and you shall have a spade among your tools, and when you [prepare to] sit down outside [to relieve yourself], you shall dig a hole with it and shall turn and cover up your waste.

¹⁴Since the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp to rescue you and to defeat your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy (undefiled); and He must not see anything indecent among you or He will turn away from you.

¹⁵"You shall not hand over to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you.

¹⁶He shall live among you, in the place he chooses in one of your cities where it pleases him; you shall not mistreat or oppress him.

¹⁷"There shall be no cult prostitute among the daughters of Israel, nor shall there be a cult prostitute (a sodomite) among the sons of Israel.

¹⁸You shall not bring the wages of a prostitute or the price of a dog [that is, a male prostitute] into the house of the LORD your God as payment for any vow, for both of these [the gift and the giver] are utterly repulsive to the LORD your God.

¹⁹"You shall not charge interest to your fellow Israelite—interest on money, food or anything that may be loaned for interest.

²⁰You may charge interest to a foreigner, but to your fellow Israelite you shall not charge interest, so that the LORD your God may bless you in[3] all that you undertake in the land which you are about to enter to possess.

²¹"When you make a[4] vow to the LORD your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for He will most certainly require it of you, and a delay would cause you to sin.

²²But if you refrain from making a vow, that would not be [counted as] sin in you.

²³You shall be careful to perform that [vow] which passes your lips, just as you have made a voluntary vow to the LORD your God, just as you have promised with your own words (mouth).

²⁴"When you enter your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes,[5] as many as you please, but you shall not put any in your basket [to take with you].

²⁵"When you come into the standing grain of your neighbor, you may[6] pluck the ears of grain with your hand, but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor's standing grain [to harvest it].