Deuteronomy 23:1-8

The perfection of Israel

Deuteronomy 23:1 to Deuteronomy 26:19

The Commonwealth of Jehovah

(Deuteronomy 23:1-8)

1He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off [one through bruising injured or emasculated] shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord. 2A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to his tenth generation 3[member] shall he not enter into the congregation of the Lord. An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord for ever: 4Because they met you not with bread and with water in the way, when ye came forth out of Egypt; and because they [he, the Moabite] hired against thee Balaam the son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse thee. 5Nevertheless the Lord thy God would not hearken unto Balaam: but the Lord thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because the Lord thy God loved thee. 6Thou shalt not seek their peace, nor their prosperity [welfare, margin: good] all thy days for eDeut Deuteronomy 23:7 Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite, for he is thy brother: thou shalt not abhor an 8Egyptian, because [for] thou wast a stranger in his land. The children [sons] that are begotten of them shall enter into the congregation of the Lord in their third generation.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

After the close of this exposition, application and completion of the decalogue, there is indicated now a delineation of Israel in the most varied aspects, especially as the Kahal Jehovah from the beginning to the close of the section. Deuteronomy 23:1. Wounded, sq., through crushing, (the pressing and rubbing of the testicles) designates the eunuch as the crushed όθλαδίας, (Septuagint). Cut off, the urethra, the completely castrated. The refusal to admit them into the communion of the covenant is explained by the congregation of the Lord, the community consecrated to Him. If of animals, Leviticus 22:24, how much more of men! Comp. Leviticus 22:18 sq. Israel is a priestly (Leviticus 21:17 sq.) community. Comp. Exodus 20:22. Only the unmutilated image of God as in its creation can come before Jehovah, the Elohim, and the people who should be permanent must possess the fitting organs of generation (Numbers 16:3; Numbers 20:4); comp. Isaiah 56:3 sq.—[They could not be admitted to the full privileges of the congregation of Jehovah; but they were received as proselytes, Acts 8:27; and the prophets show that this ban was to be removed when the reason for this restriction should be done away by the fuller presence and work of the Holy Spirit.—A. G.]—There was somewhere ever human guilt in the circumstances. So also with the מַמְזֵד, Deuteronomy 23:3 (only elsewhere in Zechariah 9:6). Meier: 1) a foreigner, 2) heterogeneous, i.e., bastard; Knobel (Keil) in the sense of corruption, foulness, filth, one stained in his conception and birth; Delitzsch: equivalent with mongrel; others: as contracted from מוּם and זָר, or from זָר מֵעָם Sept. and Vulg., as the child of fornication, which neither agrees with the connection here nor with the rest of the Old Testament; rather as the Syriac: the conception of adultery; still better: the child born of incest [so Keil, Wogue, the Bib. Com., and the Rabbins.—A. G.], (Genesis 19:30 sq.), whence the religious and political application to the mingling of the Israelites and heathen may be more fully comprehended. Comp. Isaiah 56:3; John 8:41. (The Jew Salvador designates Jesus as a mamser)—To the tenth generation, the number 10 denoting the perfect, absolute exclusion from Israel, as also, Deuteronomy 23:3, the addition forever. If the ground in Deuteronomy 23:1 is found in the human deed upon the body, so now in the immorality through the human will. With the physical, the moral, there is now connected, Deuteronomy 23:3, the religio-political, with respect to the theocratically forever-excluded Ammonites and Moabites (Lamentations 1:10). Deuteronomy 23:4. The reason: the still freshly remembered hostility restrained only by fear on their side, as on the side of Israel by the respect enjoined upon them Deuteronomy 2:19 sq.; 9 sq. (4 sq.; 29). In violation of every custom of hospitality (even in savage tribes, Isaiah 21:13 sq.), not to speak of the natural affection of kindred, they did not meet Israel with the necessaries of life. This is the point which is made against both. As the Moabites only dwelt in Ar (chap. 2), so now the transaction with Balaam on the part of Moab in which the intense hostility against Israel appears, is viewed as common with both. Comp. upon Numbers 22:0, [See Smith’sBib. Dic. Art. Ammon.—A. G.] As the singular, שׂכר, is used of Moab, represented by its king, so also Israel is spoken of in the singular, thee. Person against person, God Himself must intervene, Deuteronomy 23:5; there is no failure in the will of Moab. The designed cursing of Israel, as the highest degree of hostility, God turns to blessing, and uses the service of the prophet in doing it. It is only the necessary line of Israel’s conduct, therefore, which, Deuteronomy 23:6 announces, since according to the promise of God resting upon Israel, Genesis 12:3, which Balaam himself must repeat, Numbers 24:9, this could not cease at the present stand-point of this growing (werdens) and wrestling soldier of God. Comp. still Ezra 9:12.Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:28; Romans 12:14, are possible first in Christ, in whom David reaches perfection in Solomon. It is not “malicious zeal” (Knobel), or even national hatred or revenge, which is spoken of here, comp. Deuteronomy 2:9, and also the immediately following direction. Comp. further Jeremiah 29:7; Nehemiah 13:1 sq. (In reference to Ruth, the Talmud limits the exclusion to males.) Comp. also 2 Samuel 10:0. for personal exceptions.—[Bib. Com.: “Such a law would certainly never have suggested itself to the mind of a writer after the time of David, whose great-grandmother was a Moabitess.”—A. G.]

Deuteronomy 23:7. תעב, the expression for the technical theocratic abhorrence, e.g.Deuteronomy 22:5. In the case of Edom the tie of brotherhood should prevail, notwithstanding all its acts of hostility; in Egypt, the hospitality they had received, although they had been oppressed by Pharaoh. Comp. Doct. and Esther 6:0, upon Deuteronomy 1:6 to Deuteronomy 4:40, Hengstenberg, Moses and Egypt. “In a statement springing from a view of the living relations, the contrasts or opposition which actual life every where presents are suffered to appear; in a mythical statement they would be carefully obliterated.” Such motives as are here urged were only near and of force at the time of Moses. Deuteronomy 23:8 concerns the great-grandsons of those who had united with Israel by circumcision, or who had settled among them. Others: the grandchildren.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Circumcision, not concision, or the entire excision. Philippians 3:2 sq.

2. “How great the contrast between Jehovah and the heathen gods, in whose service the very mutilation in this respect availed as a peculiar consecration and holiness.” Baumgarten.

3. The moral blamelessness of the Lord’s people, and its sacred nobility of birth.4. Ammon and Moab as they are one in their origin, so throughout in their relation to Israel. Leaving out of view their incestuous origin, with which they are not charged, they were still, as to their origin, much farther removed from Israel than Edom. Their opposition to Israel is not in their origin, but rather out of their origin, as it asserts itself immediately in the disposition, in conscious enmity. In Edom the injustice done to their tribe-father may humanly be regarded as an excuse. Still more love may hope for a solution of the conflict between natural revengefulness and the divine choice. The fear of Edom before the divine in Israel need not strengthen itself into hatred. In any case Israel must hold its privileges open to Edom, which is directly forbidden with reference to Moab and Ammon through their conscious enmity; they are by demonic reflection what Amalek was by demonic passion. As to what is warlike, Ammon gave the tone to the boastful and tragico-comical Moab. Its hostility to the Lord’s people continues to the end. Lust and cruelty characterize its religion. Comp. Schultz, p. 164 sq.

5. [“God shows here that He regards nations as having a corporate existence, and deals with them according to their national acts. Egypt was to be kindly dealt with for its past favors to Israel. Former kindnesses were to be remembered, and past injuries to be forgotten.” Wordsworth—A. G.]

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Deuteronomy 23:2. Richter: “Ideally no one can attain to heavenly citizenship who is not born of God in the true way,” John 3:0.Deuteronomy 23:3. Reichel: “The Moabites hated the priestly kingdom of God as such, and would have it cursed throughout. On the other hand, they were not so ignorant as the other heathen, but sinned against their better knowledge. Whoever wishes good to such enemies, he helps to condemn and persecute the people of God,” 2 John 1:10. Deuteronomy 23:4. Richter: “Thus many a one still draws down upon himself the anger of God. Balaam, Balak, have their places in the Apocalypse.” Deuteronomy 23:5. Osiander: “God’s love, not ours, is the cause of all blessedness.” Deuteronomy 23:6. Schultz: “It is opposition to godlessness, indeed to enmity to God, which is not removed even by Romans 12:18, which is here fundamentally regarded.” Deuteronomy 23:7. The import of kinship. Theodoret: “He will teach us never to forget former kindnesses.” Osiander: “Early kindnesses should avail with us above later injuries.” Schultz: “Notwithstanding all hostility, we should recognize the good in our opponents.” Deuteronomy 23:8. Starke: “In the Old Testament even the door of grace stood open to the heathen; the partition wall is done away in Christ, Ephesians 2:12-14.” Berl. Bib.: “This also has its spiritual significance for the congregation of believers in the New Testament, Ephesians 5:27. Hence all must be put away who are unfruitful in good, who are of no use to their brother in bodily or spiritual things, all rough worldly men,” etc.