The Lantern

Deuteronomy23

Exclusion from the Congregation

No man wounded by crushing, or whose organ is cut off, shall enter the assembly of the LORD.

No one born of a forbidden union shall enter the assembly of the LORD; even the tenth generation of his shall not enter the assembly of the LORD.

No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the LORD; even the tenth generation of theirs shall not enter the assembly of the LORD, forever —

because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because he hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Aram-naharaim, to curse you.

But the LORD your God was not willing to listen to Balaam; and the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loves you.

You shall not seek their peace or their good, all your days, forever.

You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, for you were a sojourner in his land.

Sons born to them in the third generation may enter the assembly of the LORD.

Uncleanness in the Camp

When you go out as a camp against your enemies, keep yourself from every evil thing.

If there is among you a man who is not clean because of what happens by night, he shall go outside the camp; he shall not come inside the camp.

And it shall be, toward evening, that he shall bathe in water; and when the sun sets, he may come inside the camp.

And you shall have a place outside the camp, and you shall go out there;

and you shall have a spade among your tools, and it shall be, when you sit down outside, that you shall dig with it, and turn back and cover your excrement.

For the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give your enemies before you; so your camp shall be holy, that he may see nothing indecent among you and turn away from you.

Miscellaneous Laws

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

With you he shall live, in your midst, in the place he chooses within one of your gates, wherever it is good for him. You shall not oppress him.

There shall be no cult prostitute among the daughters of Israel, and there shall be no cult prostitute among the sons of Israel.

You shall not bring the wages of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the LORD your God for any vow — for both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD your God.

You shall not lend at interest to your brother — interest on silver, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent at interest.

To the foreigner you may lend at interest, but to your brother you shall not lend at interest — so that the LORD your God may bless you in every undertaking of your hand, in the land into which you are going, to possess it.

When you vow a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not delay to pay it; for the LORD your God will surely require it of you, and it would be sin in you.

But if you refrain from vowing, there will be no sin in you.

What comes out of your lips you shall keep and do, as you have vowed to the LORD your God — a freewill offering that you have spoken with your mouth.

When you come into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat grapes to your soul’s fill; but into your vessel you shall not put any.

When you come into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck ears with your hand; but a sickle you shall not swing over your neighbor’s standing grain.