Deut 23.1-25 tells us about those excluded from being a judge, elder or a representative of the people; public office); the kedusha in the camp; fugitive servants; the hire of harlotry was not to be brought into the sanctuary; interest charged to a brother; vows; how to behave in a brother’s vineyard or standing fields.
v1…”No one who is emasculated (self-emasculated as part of a pagan cult) or has his male organ cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord (as a judge, elder or representative; public office; the word for a eunuch can also mean an officer of the court-Acts 8.27).
v 2…No one of illegitimate birth (one born of a forbidden relationship in Lev 18 and Lev 20) shall enter the assembly of the Lord (as a judge, elder or representative); none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation (meaning “never”; all time; this law was in force in Nehemiah’s time) shall enter the assembly of the Lord (public office).
v 3…No Ammonite or Moabite (this is in the masculine and not the feminine, so this was restricted to the men. But females could if they converted to the God of Israel, like Ruth the Moabitess and ancestor of David did), even to the tenth generation shall ever (never) enter the assembly of the Lord (hold public office);
v 4…because they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came out of egypt (Ammon), and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you (Moab).
v 5…Nevertheless, 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 loves you (Num 23.11,25; 24.10).
v 6…You shall never seek their peace (this applied to the people of Israel as a whole, they were not to hate them personally-2 Sam 10.2).
v 7…You shall not detest an Edomite, for he is your brother, you shall not detest an Egyptian, because you were an alien (“ger” or guest and at first were treated kindly) in his land.
v 8…The sons (of a proselyte) of the third generation who are born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord (as a judge, elder or representative).
v 9…When you go out as an army against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every evil thing (strange worship or religions; idolatry, murder, and other wickedness).
v 10…If there is among you any man who is unclean (out of place) because of a nocturnal emission, then he must go outside the camp (of the army), he may not reenter the camp.
v 11…But it shall be when evening approaches, he shall bathe himself with water, and at sundown he may reenter the camp (of the army).
v 12…You shall also have a place (a prepared place of sanitation) outside the camp (of the army) and go there (for the necessities of nature),
v 13…and you shall have a spade among your tools, and it shall be when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and shall turn to cover up your excrement.
v 14…Since the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp (the Ark went with them as a token of his presence to battle) to deliver you and to defeat your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy (have a kedusha in a moral and ceremonial sense), and he must not see anything indecent among you, lest he turn away from you.
v 15…You shall not hand over to his a master a servant (bondman) who has escaped from his master (a non-Jew from outside of the land).
v 16…He shall live with you in your midst, in the place which he shall choose in one of your towns where it pleases him; you shall not mistreat him.
v 17…None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult (religious) prostitute (kedesha-set apart as a religious prostitute); nor shall any of the sons of Israel be a cult prostitute (kadesh).
v 18…You shall not bring the hire of a harlot (the profits in money or kind) or the wages of a dog (male sodomite or prostitute-Rev 22.15) into the house of the Lord your God for any votive offering, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.
v 19…You shall not charge interest to your countrymen; interest on money, food, or anything that may be loaned at interest (this was seen as charity).
v 20…You may charge interest to a foreigner (Hebrew “nokri” who is going through the land on business, a merchant), but to your countrymen you shall not charge interest, so the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land which you are about to possess.
v 21…When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for it would be sin in you, and the Lord your God will surely require it of you.
v 22…However, if you refrain from vowing, it would not be sin in you (one is not under any obligation to make a vow, even though they had the ability; it was voluntary).
v 23…You shall be careful to perform what goes out of your lips (a covenant made with the lips), just as you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God, what you have promised.
v 24…When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, then you may eat grapes until you are satisfied, but you shall not put any in your pocket (don’t abuse someone’s kindness and charity).
v 25…When you enter your neighbor’s standing grain, then you may pluck the heads with your hands, but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor’s standing grain (Yeshua’s talmidim plucked grain in Matt 12.1).”
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