Deuteronomy
Chapter 23
1 Anyone with damaged testicles or a severed penis cannot join God’s assembly.
2 A child born outside of marriage cannot join God’s assembly; not even their descendants up to ten generations can join.
3 An Ammonite or Moabite may not join God’s people; not even their descendants to the tenth generation can ever join.
4 Because they did not meet you with food and water when you left Egypt, and because they paid Balaam, son of Beor from Pethor in Mesopotamia, to curse you.
5 But God didn’t listen to Balaam; instead, God changed the curse into a blessing for you, because God loved you.
6 Do not look for their peace or well-being at any time, forever.
7 Do not dislike an Edomite; he is your relative. Do not dislike an Egyptian; you were once a foreigner in his country.
8 The children born to them will be allowed to join God’s community in their third generation.
9 When the army goes out against your enemies, stay away from all evil things.
10 If anyone among you becomes unclean because of something that happens to him at night, he must go outside the camp and not return.
11 When evening arrives, he must wash himself with water; and after sunset, he can return to the camp.
12 You must have a place outside the camp to which you can go as needed.
13 You should carry a tool with your weapon. When you need to use the bathroom outside, dig a hole with it, do your business, then cover it up afterwards.
14 God walks in the middle of your camp to save you and to defeat your enemies ahead of you; so your camp must be sacred so that God does not see anything dirty in you and leave you.
15 Do not return to their owner a servant who has run away from them to you.
16 He will live with you, in the place he picks within your gates, where he prefers: do not mistreat him.
17 No woman of Israel shall be a prostitute, and no man of Israel shall be a male prostitute.
18 Do not bring money earned from a prostitute or from selling a dog to God’s house to keep a promise, because both of these are disgusting to God.
19 Do not charge your brother interest on money, food, or anything else that you lend with interest.
20 You may charge interest when you lend to a stranger, but not to your own people, so that God may bless everything you do in the land you are entering to own.
21 When you make a promise to God, you must not delay in fulfilling it, because God will definitely expect it from you; otherwise, it will be a sin for you.
22 If you choose not to make a promise, you will not be sinning.
23 Do what you have said; fulfill your voluntary promise to God, just as you vowed with your own words.
24 When you go into your neighbor’s vineyard, you can eat as many grapes as you want for your own enjoyment, but you must not take any away in a container.
25 When you go into your neighbor’s grain field, you can pick ears by hand, but you must not cut your neighbor’s grain with a sickle.