Deuteronomy 23:1-13 ▼

1 “No one who is emasculated or has his male organ cut off may enter the assembly of the LORD.

2 No one of illegitimate birth may enter the assembly of the LORD; none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation, may enter the assembly of the LORD.

3 No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the LORD; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, may ever enter the assembly of the LORD,

4 because they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.

5 Nevertheless, the LORD your God was unwilling to listen to Balaam, but the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you because the LORD your God loves you.

6 You shall never seek their peace or their prosperity all your days.

7 “You shall not loathe an Edomite, for he is your brother; you shall not loathe an Egyptian, because you were a stranger in his land.

8 The sons of the third generation who are born to them may enter the assembly of the LORD.

9 “When you go out as an army against your enemies, you shall be on guard against every evil thing.

10 “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 reenter the camp.

11 But when evening approaches, he shall bathe himself with water, and at sundown he may reenter the camp.

12 “You shall also have a place allocated outside the camp, so that you may go out there to relieve yourself,

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 and cover up your excrement.