Ulangan 23:1

Purity in Public Worship

23:1 A man with crushed ¹  or severed genitals ²  may not enter the assembly of the Lord. ³ 

Ulangan 23:8

23:8 Children of the third generation born to them ⁴  may enter the assembly of the Lord.

Ulangan 27:14

The Covenant Curses

27:14 “The Levites will call out to every Israelite ⁵  with a loud voice:

Ulangan 31:24

Anticipation of Disobedience

31:24 When Moses finished writing on a scroll the words of this law in their entirety,

Ulangan 33:1

Introduction to the Blessing of Moses

33:1 This is the blessing Moses the man of God pronounced upon the Israelites before his death.

[23:1]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ 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.

[23:8]  ⁴ sn Concessions were made to the Edomites and Egyptians (as compared to the others listed in vv. 1-6) because the Edomites (i.e., Esauites) were full “brothers” of Israel and the Egyptians had provided security and sustenance for Israel for more than four centuries.

[27:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “Israelite man.”