Deuteronomy 23:1 - Meaning and Application

Interpreters do not agree on what is meant here by “entering into the congregation of the Lord.” This is forbidden to eunuchs and bastards, and to Ammonites and Moabites forever, while Edomites and Egyptians are limited only to the third generation. Some think this means they were kept from joining in the people’s public worship. Others think it means they could not hold office among the people. A third view is that it refers only to marriage with Israelites. Bishop Patrick favors that last view, though later, after the exile, the people separated not only from foreign wives, but from the whole mixed crowd (Nehemiah 13:1-2). It seems that women from these nations, if they truly accepted the Jewish faith, could marry Israelite men. But the men of these nations could not marry Israelite women, and they could not be fully accepted except as this law allowed.

In general, this law puts disgrace on bastards and eunuchs (Deuteronomy 23:1-2). By “bastards,” Jewish writers do not mean everyone born outside marriage. They mean children of the incestuous unions forbidden in Leviticus 18. The child was not to blame, but the law still marked such families to warn people against those sinful unions and lusts. Jephthah, though called the son of a harlot, a foreign woman (Judges 11:1-2), was not a bastard in the sense of this law. As for eunuchs, they seemed to be shut out like dry trees, as they complained in (Isaiah 56:3). Yet God later promised that if they were faithful in what they could do, keeping his Sabbaths and choosing what pleased him, he would give them spiritual blessings that would give them an everlasting name (Deuteronomy 23:5).

This law also falls heavily on the Ammonites and Moabites, the descendants of Lot, who had separated from Abraham for the sake of outward ease (Genesis 13:11). We do not find that he or his family ever returned to the covenant people. They are shut out to the tenth generation, which some understand as meaning forever. Compare (Nehemiah 13:1). The reason for this lasting quarrel was the harm they had just done to Israel, even though God had told Israel not to distress or provoke them (Deuteronomy 2:9, 19). It was bad enough that they did not meet Israel with bread and water on the way (Deuteronomy 23:4). They did not even act as neighbors, or at least as neutral people, by bringing food into the camp, which they could have been paid for. Israel did not actually need their help, since God himself gave them bread and water. Still, their failure would be remembered against them in later ages. God will surely judge not only those who fight his people, but also those who can help and do not. The judgment at the last day also includes this failure: “I was hungry, and you gave me no food.”

The Moabites did worse, because they hired Balaam to curse Israel (Deuteronomy 23:4). God turned that curse into a blessing (Deuteronomy 23:5). He did this by changing Balaam’s words, and also by making what was meant for harm serve Israel’s honor and good. But even though the plan failed and God overruled it for good, the Moabites’ sin was still serious. God deals with sinners according to what they tried to do (Psalm 28:4).

The Edomites and Egyptians were not marked with the same deep displeasure as the Moabites and Ammonites. If an Edomite or Egyptian became a convert, his grandchildren were to be counted fully among the congregation of the Lord (Deuteronomy 23:7-8). We might think the Edomites had treated Israel worse than the Ammonites and deserved as little favor as they did (Numbers 20:20). Yet God says, “Do not despise an Edomite, for he is your brother.” This teaches us that the unkindness of close relatives, though often felt most sharply, should for that very reason be forgiven first. The same is true of the Egyptians. A surprising reason is given why they must not be hated: “You were a stranger in their land.” So, even if they treated Israel harshly, Israel was to be civil to them for the sake of old acquaintance. Israel was not to remember slavery in Egypt to keep hatred alive, but only to praise God’s power and goodness in their rescue.