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Deuteronomy 23:2

in Deuteronomy 23

No one of illegitimate birth may enter the assembly of the LORD, nor may any of his descendants, even to the tenth generation.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

A bastard shall not enter into the assembly of Jehovah; even to the tenth generation shall none of his enter into the assembly of Jehovah.

KJV

A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the Lord.

This verse in Deuteronomy 23

Commentary

7 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

A bastard shall not enter - ממזר mamzer, which is here rendered bastard, should be understood as implying the offspring of an illegitimate or incestuous mixture.

This site's exposition

He that is wounded in the stones

on Deuteronomy 23:1-2

The chapter opens on who is shut out, and what being shut out means is disputed, since Barnes reads the bar as one on naturalization and public office rather than on living in the land, and Henry says plainly that interpreters are not agreed. The word rendered bastard is mamzer, which Clarke takes of the child of an incestuous or forbidden union rather than of any child born outside marriage. Isaiah 56:3-5 answers verse 1 by name, promising the eunuch who takes hold of the covenant a place and a name in God's house better than of sons and of daughters. Acts 8:27 has an Ethiopian eunuch on the road home from Jerusalem with the scroll of Isaiah open in front of him.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

1, 2 ), yet was not a bastard in the sense of this law. And as for the eunuchs, though by this law they seemed to be cast out of the vineyard as dry trees, which they complain of ( Isa. lvi. 3 ), yet it is here promised (

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-citation-number

A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord,....

The Nineteenth Century3 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

He that is wounded . . ., shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord--"To enter into the congregation of the Lord" means either admission to public honors and offices in the Church and State of Israel, or, in the case of foreigners, incorporation with that nation by marriage.

A commentator

Albert Barnes

1798–1870

Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

proposed

A bastard - Probably, a child born of incest or adultery. Even to his tenth generation - i. e. (see the next verse and Neh 13:1), forever. Ten is the number of perfection and completeness.
A bastard - Probably, a child born of incest or adultery. Even to his tenth generation - i. e. (see the next verse and Neh 13:1), forever. Ten is the number of perfection and completeness.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

On the verses either side of this one

A man may not marry his father’s wife, and may not expose the edge of his father’s garment.
Targum · Onkelos Deuteronomy 23:1, via Sefaria, Metsudah Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009 [with Onkelos translation]

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

13 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • לֹא־not

    lo'-H38085168 times

  • יָבֹ֥אhe will go

    yavo'H9352568 times

  • מַמְזֵ֖רa bastard

    mamzerH4464

  • בִּקְהַ֣לin [the] assembly of

    bikhalH6951123 times

  • יְהוָ֑הYahweh

    yahwehH30686520 times

  • גַּ֚םalso

    gamH1571769 times

  • דּ֣וֹרa generation

    dorH1755167 times

  • עֲשִׂירִ֔יtenth

    ʾasiriH6224

  • לֹא־not

    lo'-H38085168 times

  • יָ֥בֹאit will go

    yavo'H9352568 times

  • ל֖וֹof <the> him

    lo

  • בִּקְהַ֥לin [the] assembly of

    bikhalH6951123 times

  • יְהוָֽה׃ סYahweh

    yahwehH30686520 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Hebrews 12:8

    If you do not experience discipline like everyone else, then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.

    it leads to

    • Hebrews 12:6

      For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.”

    • 1 Peter 5:9–10

      Resist him, standing firm in your faith and in the knowledge that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering.

    • Psalms 73:1

      Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.

    • Psalms 73:14–15

      For I am afflicted all day long and punished every morning.

  • Through

    John 8:41

    You are doing the works of your father.” “We are not illegitimate children,” they declared. “Our only Father is God Himself.”

    it leads to

    • Isaiah 64:8

      But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.

    • John 8:38

      I speak of what I have seen in the presence of the Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”

    • Isaiah 63:16

      Yet You are our Father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O LORD, are our Father; our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name.

  • Through

    Isaiah 57:3

    “But come here, you sons of a sorceress, you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes!

    it leads to

    • Matthew 16:4

      A wicked and adulterous generation demands a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Then He left them and went away.

Where this verse is studied

About Deuteronomy

Moses Comes Down from Mount Sinai, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Moses Comes Down from Mount Sinai, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.