Ulangan 23:3-5

23:3 An Ammonite or Moabite ¹  may not enter the assembly of the Lord; to the tenth generation none of their descendants shall ever ²  do so, ³  23:4 for they did not meet you with food and water on the way as you came from Egypt, and furthermore, they hired ⁴  Balaam son of Beor of Pethor in Aram Naharaim to curse you. 23:5 But the Lord your God refused to listen to Balaam and changed ⁵  the curse to a blessing, for the Lord your God loves ⁶  you.

Ulangan 23:1

Purity in Public Worship

23:1 A man with crushed ⁷  or severed genitals ⁸  may not enter the assembly of the Lord. ⁹ 

Kisah Para Rasul 11:1

Peter Defends His Actions to the Jerusalem Church

11:1 Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles too had accepted ¹⁰  the word of God. ¹¹ 

Kisah Para Rasul 11:5-7

11:5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, ¹²  an object something like a large sheet descending, ¹³  being let down from heaven ¹⁴  by its four corners, and it came to me. 11:6 As I stared ¹⁵  I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild animals, reptiles, ¹⁶  and wild birds. ¹⁷  11:7 I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; slaughter ¹⁸  and eat!’

Nehemia 4:3

4:3 Then Tobiah the Ammonite, who was close by, said, “If even a fox were to climb up on what they are building, it would break down their wall of stones!”

Nehemia 4:7

4:7 (4:1) ¹⁹  When Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the people of Ashdod heard that the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem ²⁰  had moved ahead and that the breaches had begun to be closed, they were very angry.

Nehemia 13:1-3

Further Reforms by Nehemiah

13:1 On that day the book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing ²¹  of the people. They found ²²  written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite may ever enter the assembly of God, 13:2 for they had not met the Israelites with food ²³  and water, but instead had hired Balaam to curse them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into blessing.) 13:3 When they heard the law, they removed from Israel all who were of mixed ancestry.

[23:3]  ¹ sn An Ammonite or Moabite. These descendants of Lot by his two daughters (cf. Gen 19:30-38) were thereby the products of incest and therefore excluded from the worshiping community. However, these two nations also failed to show proper hospitality to Israel on their way to Canaan (v. 4).

[23:3]  ² tn The Hebrew term translated “ever” (עַד־עוֹלָם, ’ad-’olam) suggests that “tenth generation” (vv. 2, 3) also means “forever.” However, in the OT sense “forever” means not “for eternity” but for an indeterminate future time. See A. Tomasino, NIDOTTE 3:346.

[23:3]  ³ tn Heb “enter the assembly of the Lord.” The phrase “do so” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[23:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “hired against you.”

[23:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “the Lord your God changed.” The phrase “the Lord your God” has not been included in the translation here for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy. Moreover, use of the pronoun “he” could create confusion regarding the referent (the Lord or Balaam).

[23:5]  ⁶ tn The verb אָהַב (’ahav, “love”) here and commonly elsewhere in the Book of Deuteronomy speaks of God’s elective grace toward Israel. See note on the word “loved” in Deut 4:37.

[23:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “bruised by crushing,” which many English versions take to refer to crushed testicles (NAB, NRSV, NLT); TEV “who has been castrated.”

[23:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “cut off with respect to the penis”; KJV, ASV “hath his privy member cut off”; English versions vary in their degree of euphemism here; cf. NAB, NRSV, TEV, NLT “penis”; NASB “male organ”; NCV “sex organ”; CEV “private parts”; NIV “emasculated by crushing or cutting.”

[23:1]  ⁹ sn The Hebrew term translated “assembly” (קָהָל, qahal) does not refer here to the nation as such but to the formal services of the tabernacle or temple. Since emasculated or other sexually abnormal persons were commonly associated with pagan temple personnel, the thrust here may be primarily polemical in intent. One should not read into this anything having to do with the mentally and physically handicapped as fit to participate in the life and ministry of the church.

[11:1]  ¹⁰ tn See BDAG 221 s.v. δέχομαι 5 for this translation of ἐδέξαντο (edexanto) here.

[11:1]  ¹¹ tn Here the phrase “word of God” is another way to describe the gospel (note the preceding verb ἐδέξαντο, edexanto, “accepted”). The phrase could also be translated “the word [message] from God.”

[11:5]  ¹² tn This term describes a supernatural vision and reflects a clear distinction from something imagined (BDAG 718 s.v. ὅραμα 1). Peter repeated the story virtually word for word through v. 13. The repetition with this degree of detail shows the event’s importance.

[11:5]  ¹³ tn Or “coming down.”

[11:5]  ¹⁴ tn Or “the sky” (the same Greek word means both “heaven” and “sky”).

[11:6]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “Staring I looked into it.” The participle ἀτενίσας (atenisa") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[11:6]  ¹⁶ tn Or “snakes.” Grk “creeping things.” According to L&N 4.51, in most biblical contexts the term (due to the influence of Hebrew classifications such as Gen 1:25-26, 30) included small four-footed animals like rats, mice, frogs, toads, salamanders, and lizards. In this context, however, where “creeping things” are contrasted with “four-footed animals,” the English word “reptiles,” which primarily but not exclusively designates snakes, is probably more appropriate.

[11:6]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “the birds of the sky” or “the birds of the heaven”; the Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated either “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context. The idiomatic expression “birds of the sky” refers to wild birds as opposed to domesticated fowl (cf. BDAG 809 s.v. πετεινόν).

[11:7]  ¹⁸ tn Or “kill.” Traditionally θῦσον (quson) is translated “kill,” but in the case of animals intended for food, “slaughter” is more appropriate.

[4:7]  ¹⁹ sn Chapter 4 begins here in the Hebrew text (BHS). See the note at 4:1.

[4:7]  ²⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[13:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “ears.”

[13:1]  ²² tn Heb “it was found.” The Hebrew verb is passive.

[13:2]  ²³ tn Heb “bread.” The Hebrew term is generic here, however, referring to more than bread alone.