Who May Enter Our Father's Assembly
23 1 No man whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off may enter the assembly of our Father. 2 No one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of our Father; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants may enter the assembly of our Father. 3 No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of our Father; even to the tenth generation none belonging to them may enter the assembly of our Father, ever. 4 This is because they did not meet you with bread and water on your way out of Egypt, and because they hired Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. 5 But your Father would not listen to Balaam; instead he turned the curse into a blessing for you, because your Father loved you. 6 You must not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days, ever. 7 You must not despise an Edomite, for he is your brother. You must not despise an Egyptian, because you were a foreigner in his land. 8 The children born to them in the third generation may enter the assembly of our Father.
Holiness in the Camp
9 When you march out as a camp against your enemies, keep yourself from every evil thing. 10 If there is among you any man who is not clean because of an emission in the night, then he must go outside the camp; he must not come back inside. 11 But when evening comes, he must bathe himself in water, and as the sun sets he may come back inside the camp. 12 You must have a place outside the camp where you may go out to relieve yourself. 13 And you must keep a spade among your tools, and when you sit down outside you must dig a hole with it and cover up your excrement. 14 For your Father walks in the midst of your camp to rescue you and to give your enemies over to you; therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.
Laws for Life Together
15 You must not hand over to his master a slave who has escaped from his master and come to you. 16 He may live with you, among you, in the place he chooses within one of your towns, wherever it suits him. You must not oppress him.
17 There must be no temple prostitute among the daughters of Israel, and no temple prostitute among the sons of Israel. 1 1 v17 A "temple prostitute" was tied to pagan fertility worship, not ordinary prostitution — the practice mixed sex with idol religion, and our Father forbids it among his children. 18 You must not bring the wages of a prostitute or the earnings of a dog into the house of your Father to pay any vow, for both of these are detestable to your Father. 2 2 v18 "A dog" here is slang for a male temple prostitute; his earnings, like a prostitute's, are forbidden as an offering.
19 You must not charge your brother interest — interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything else you might lend. 20 You may lend at interest to a foreigner, but you must not lend at interest to your brother, so that your Father may bless you in everything you set your hand to do, in the land you are entering to possess.
21 When you make a vow to your Father, do not delay in fulfilling it, for your Father will surely require it of you, and you would be guilty of sin. 22 But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin. 23 You must be careful to do what you have promised, for you made the vow freely to your Father with your own mouth. 24 When you go into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you must not put any into your basket. 25 When you go into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the heads of grain with your hand, but you must not put a sickle to your neighbor's standing grain.