As we explore the Seventh Commandment, prohibition against adultery, we continue to look at examples of desecration or incompleteness.
Deuteronomy 23: 1-2, Incomplete
No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the LORD.
Here are apparently two examples of incompleteness. In the first, an "incomplete" male is prohibited; in the second those born of a "forbidden marriage". It is not clear what the term "born of a forbidden marriage" means but the term appears in Zechariah 9:6 where the NIV translates it as "mongrel." Presumably this is related to marrying someone outside of the tribe of Israel.
Deuteronomy 23: 3-6, Ammonites and Moabites
No Ammonite or Moabite or any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even down to the tenth generation. For they did not come to meet you with bread and water on your way when you came out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram Naharaim to pronounce a curse on you. However, the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam but turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loves you. Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them as long as you live.
We continue to have prohibitions about intermarrying the outsiders. But we will see later that David's great grandmother was a Moab woman.
The restrictions about Ammonites and Moabites may fit in to this discussion of sexual mores since the Moabites and Ammonites are descendants of children of Lot's daughters (see Genesis 19: 30-38) after they had sex with their father.
(NIV Footnotes: Aram Naharaim is apparently northwest Mesopotamia.)
Deuteronomy 23: 7-8, Edomites
Do not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. Do not abhor an Egyptian, because you lived as an alien in his country. The third generation of children born to them may enter the assembly of the LORD.
The Edomites and Egyptians are treated differently than the Moabites and Ammonites, with whom Moses and Israel have had warfare.
Deuteronomy 23: 9-14, Impurity in various forms
When you are encamped against your enemies, keep away from everything impure.
If one of your men is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he is to go outside the camp and stay there. But as evening approaches he is to wash himself, and at sunset he may return to the camp.
Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement.
For the LORD your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you.
These decrees seem to be linked to incompleteness, poor hygiene, emphasizing a certain purity for the camp of Israel. The subjects of this discussion appears to be soldiers on campaign.
Now we begin to explore the Eighth Commandment (Deuteronomy 5: 19), the prohibition against theft.
Deuteronomy 23: 15-16, Refugee slave
If a slave has taken refuge with you, do not hand him over to his master. Let him live among you wherever he likes and in whatever town he chooses. Do not oppress him.
A slave, running away from another land, is to be welcomed. Currid claims that this is the opposite of ancient Near East practice; for example, in the Code of Hammurabi one who aided a slave could be put to death. (A copy of a translation of the code of Hammurabi is here; Currid is probably referring to law 16.)
Deuteronomy 23: 17-18, Prostitutes
No Israelite man or woman is to become a shrine prostitute.
You must not bring the earnings of a female prostitute or of a male prostitute into the house of the LORD your God to pay any vow, because the LORD your God detests them both.
Prostitution (by males or females) is a particularly dangerous form of sexual impurity and is to be completely forbidden. The Hebrew word translated here "male prostitute" is the word keleb, literally "dog".
In Canaanite cultic practices, the money collected from prostitution was given to the temple. This is explicitly prohibited here.
Deuteronomy 23: 19-20, Interests
Do not charge your brother interest, whether on money or food or anything else that may earn interest. You may charge a foreigner interest, but not a brother Israelite, so that the LORD your God may bless you in everything you put your hand to in the land you are entering to possess.
Excessive interest can be a form of theft.
Deuteronomy 23: 21-23, Vows
If you make a vow to the LORD your God, do not be slow to pay it, for the LORD your God will certainly demand it of you and you will be guilty of sin.
But if you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty.
Whatever your lips utter you must be sure to do, because you made your vow freely to the LORD your God with your own mouth.
Dishonest vows may fit here in a discussion of the Ten Commandments because, says Currid, they represent theft from God.
Deuteronomy 23: 24-25, Grapes and grain
If you enter your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want, but do not put any in your basket.
If you enter your neighbor's grainfield, you may pick kernels with your hands, but you must not put a sickle to his standing grain.
A farmer is to be hospitable, allowing people to stave off hunger by picking from their fields. One is allowed to pick fruit off the vine to satisfy one's hunger, but not to harvest it -- same with actions in the grainfield. Picking a few items by hand is not a serious threat to your neighbor but using a basket or a sickle indicates theft, not hunger.
A farmer is to be hospitable, allowing people to stave off hunger by picking from their fields. One is allowed to pick fruit off the vine to satisfy one's hunger, but not to harvest it -- same with actions in the grainfield. Picking a few items by hand is not a serious threat to your neighbor but using a basket or a sickle indicates theft, not hunger.
Later there will be additional decreed about leaving some fruit or grain on the stalks for the poor.
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