Deuteronomy 23:12

Thou shalt have a place also without the camp, whither thou shalt go forth abroad:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

23:9-14 The camp of the Lord must have nothing offensive in it. If there must be this care taken to preserve the body clean, much more should we be careful to keep the mind pure.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The whole passage refers not to the encampments of the nation while passing from Egypt through the wilderness, but to future warlike expeditions seat out from Canaan.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9-14. When the host goeth forth against thine enemies, then keep thee from every wicked thing—from the excesses incident to camp life, as well as from habits of personal neglect and impurity.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

To wit, to ease thyself, as it follows, Deu 23:13.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Thou shalt have also a place without the camp,.... A place prepared, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, provided on purpose for the use hereafter suggested; so Ben Melech:

whither thou shalt go forth abroad; to do the necessities of nature, which they were to do without the camp, not in any place they thought fit and most convenient, but what was appointed for that purpose.

Geneva Study Bible

Thou shalt have a place also without the camp, whither thou shalt (f) go forth abroad:

(f) For the necessities of nature.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Deuteronomy 23:12

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The camp of war was also not to be defiled with the dirt of excrements. Outside the camp there was to be a space or place (יד, as in Numbers 2:17) for the necessities of nature, and among their implements they were to have a spade, with which they were to dig when they sat down, and then cover it up again. יתד, generally a plug, here a tool for sticking in, i.e., for digging into the ground.