Who May Enter Our Father's Assembly
23 1 No man with crushed testicles or a severed penis may enter the assembly of our Father. 2 No one of illegitimate birth may enter the assembly of our Father; nor may his descendants, even to the tenth generation, enter the assembly of our Father. 3 No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of our Father; not even their tenth generation may enter the assembly of our Father, ever. 4 For they did not meet you with bread and water on the road out of Egypt, and hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia to curse you. 5 But your Father refused to listen to Balaam, and 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 Do not despise an Edomite; he is your brother. Do not despise an Egyptian; 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 any man among you is unclean from a nighttime emission, he must go outside the camp and not enter it again. 11 As evening approaches, he must bathe in water; at sunset he may return to the camp. 12 You must have a place outside the camp where you may go out to relieve yourself. 13 Keep a spade among your gear. When you sit outside, dig with it and cover your excrement. 14 Your Father walks through your camp to rescue you and hand over your enemies; therefore your camp must be holy, so he sees nothing indecent among you and turns away from you.
Laws for Life Together
15 Do not hand over to his master a slave who has escaped to you from his master. 16 He shall live with you, among you, in any of your towns he chooses, wherever pleases him. Do not mistreat him.
17 No daughter of Israel is to be a temple prostitute, and no son of Israel a temple prostitute. a a 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 Do not bring a prostitute's fee or a dog's earnings into your Father's house for any vow — both are detestable to your Father. b b v18 "A dog" here is slang for a male temple prostitute; his earnings, like a prostitute's, are forbidden as an offering.
19 Don't charge your brother interest — on money, food, or anything else lent. 20 Charge a foreigner interest, but not your brother, so your Father blesses everything you put your hand to in the land you're entering to possess.
21 When you vow a vow to your Father, do not delay paying it, for your Father will surely require it of you, and it will be sin in you. 22 But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin. 23 Keep and do what you vow to your Father; you spoke it voluntarily, with your own mouth. 24 When you enter your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as much as you like, but put none in your container. 25 When you enter your neighbor's standing grain, you may pick heads of grain by hand, but you must not swing a sickle in your neighbor's standing grain.
