Citizenry - Deuteronomy 23

The first several verses of chapter 23 have to do with the “congregation of the Lord” which according to the IM and TB, has to do with who can participate in which levels of government. There was extensive lecture and a big section in the IM that goes through who exactly is allowed to do what and participate in which levels of government, but I’m not going to go through all that because frankly I don’t understand it all and don’t really care that much. There are a few points that I think are worth pointing out though. First is that there didn’t seem to be any prohibition on who could become a believer and accepted as an Israelite by belief and there were even levels of participation depending on how involved the person who wasn’t born an Israelite wants to be. For instance, if a man wants to be a believer but doesn’t want to get circumcised, then there was a level to which that man could participate, etc.

The second point that I think is important to bring up is that Ruth was a Moabite and she was an ancestor of Christ because she married Boaz and accepted the Israelite beliefs. It’s interesting to think about because Christ didn’t have this perfect like “pure blood” ancestry which is an important when we think about who belongs in the kingdom and who doesn’t. The answer, of course, is that everyone belongs there. Ammonites or Moabites weren’t allowed to be apart of the Israelite government because they were not hospitable to Israel when they were wandering in the desert. TB has a good explanation that basically says that these groups should have sold provisions to the Hebrews while they were wandering but they didn’t and therefore their people can’t participate in the government of Israel if they do decide to join for at least 10 generation. Ruth was a Moabite but she was 28 generations before Christ so they were good. TB also notes that because she as a woman married a man who was an Israelite and adopted the religion then she didn’t have that prohibition and their children were considered full Israelite citizens right away. Additionally, these groups tried to get Israel cursed and that pissed God off so they were also banned because of that.

Edomites, however, were not to be abhorred because they were descendants from Esau, and therefore related. Egyptians were also to be considered fairly because “thou wast a stranger in his land.” TB says about Egypt, “the Lord has reserved a special place in His heart for Egypt. In the end times Egypt will be viewed as somewhat better than the nations who surround Israel and will be given certain rewards. This is because it was in Egypt where Israel sojourned.” Jesus was also taken to Egypt as a baby to flee from Herod’s murdering all the baby boys, so the special place makes sense.

Honestly, most of this chapter is better read in a different translation version than the KJV because it doesn’t make any sense. Verses 9-14 have to do with military encampments. The first is that if, during sleep at night, one of the soldiers as a “night emission” then they are considered “unclean” and have to leave the camp for the day, wash and wait until night fall to come back. I had a couple of thoughts reading this, first was I wonder how embarrassed the soldiers would be having to tell their leadership “hey I had a wet dream and have to leave camp for the day.” Then I thought, “what a great way to get out of work” and could see it happening a lot, even if it didn’t, you know. “Oh we have to dig a trench today, I can’t, I had a wet dream so I have to wait outside today, sorry.” TB had an interesting take on this and compared it to a woman being considered unclean during her monthly menstrual cycle. He says, “just as a woman is declared impure by the onset of her monthly cycle in her reproductive system, so is a man declared impure by an unintended emission from his reproductive organ… Impurity happens to both the make and female in this case because of a misuse of God’s procreative system even if it’s unavoidable... Therefore this is NOT called sin.” I thought that was a pretty interesting comparison. There’s also a part about where to dig the latrine, which I appreciate from a field sanitation perspective.

A slave that escapes to Israel can’t be handed back to their master but must be allowed to live wherever they want and can’t be oppressed. Any man or woman engaging in prostitution can not pay into the treasury with those wages. The verse states female prostitute or male homosexual prostitute so I guess that leaves the loophole for male prostitutes that service women but my guess is that that sector of the market wasn’t really on Moses’ radar. I wonder if that was even something that happened then.

There is a bit about charging interest on loans, Hebrew’s couldn’t charge interest on loans to each other but could charge interest to foreigners. There’s a bit about taking vows, which we’ve covered previously, and a command allowing a person to eat their neighbor’s grapes or corn but not taking any home with them or harvesting with a sickle. So basically for personal use but not enough to make a big dent in their neighbor’s harvest.