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Deuteronomy 23:3

in Deuteronomy 23

No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even to the tenth generation.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the assembly of Jehovah; even to the tenth generation shall none belonging to them enter into the assembly of Jehovah for ever:

KJV

An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord for ever:

This verse in Deuteronomy 23

Commentary

7 notes on this verse
This law forbids only the naturalization of those against whom it is directed. It does not forbid their dwelling in the land; and seems to refer rather to the nations than to individuals. It was not understood at any rate to interdict marriage with a Moabitess; compare Rth 1:4; Rth 4:13. Ruth however, and her sister were doubtless proselytes. Deu 23:4 Compare the marginal reference. The Moabites and the Ammonites are to be regarded as clans of the same stock rather than as two independent nations, and as acting together. Compare 2Ch 20:1.

This site's exposition

No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD

on Deuteronomy 23:3-6

Moab and Ammon are charged with withholding food and water and hiring Balaam. Nehemiah 13:1-2 quotes the charge back, the turned curse included.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

Upon Ammonites and Moabites, the posterity of Lot, who, for his outward convenience, had separated himself from Abraham, Gen. xiii. And we do not find that he or his ever joined themselves again to the children of the covenant. They are here cut off to the tenth generation, that is, (as some think it is explained), for ever.
An Ammonite or Moabite 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

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

even to the their tenth generation shall they not enter--Many eminent writers think that this law of exclusion was applicable only to males; at all events that a definite is used for an indefinite number (Ne 13:1;

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase+unbalanced-parens

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

An Ammonite or Moabite - These nations were subjected for their impiety and wickedness, (see Deu 23:4 and Deu 23:5), to peculiar disgrace, and on this account were not permitted to hold any office among the Israelites. But this did not disqualify them from being proselytes: Ruth, who was a Moabitess, was married to Boaz, and she became one of the progenitors of our Lord. Even to their tenth generation - That is, for ever, as the next clause explains; see Neh 13:1.

The words behind it

16 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.

  • לֹֽא־not

    lo'-H3808 →5168 times

  • יָבֹ֧אhe will go

    yavo'H935 →2568 times

  • עַמּוֹנִ֛יan Ammonite

    amoniH5984 →

  • וּמוֹאָבִ֖יand a Moabite

    umoaviH4125 →16 times

  • בִּקְהַ֣לin [the] assembly of

    bikhalH6951 →123 times

  • יְהוָ֑הYahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • גַּ֚םalso

    gamH1571 →769 times

  • דּ֣וֹרa generation

    dorH1755 →167 times

  • עֲשִׂירִ֔יtenth

    ʾasiriH6224 →

  • לֹא־not

    lo'-H3808 →5168 times

  • יָבֹ֥אit will go

    yavo'H935 →2568 times

  • לָהֶ֛םof <the> them

    lahem

  • בִּקְהַ֥לin [the] assembly of

    bikhalH6951 →123 times

  • יְהוָ֖הYahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • עַד־until

    ʾad-H5704 →1261 times

  • עוֹלָֽם׃perpetuity

    olamH5769 →438 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

    Isaiah 56:3

    Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, “The LORD will utterly exclude me from His people.” And let the eunuch not say, “I am but a dry tree.”

    it leads to

    • 1 Corinthians 6:17

      But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit.

    • Acts 10:34

      Then Peter began to speak: “I now truly understand that God does not show favoritism,

    • Matthew 19:12–30

      For there are eunuchs who were born that way; others were made that way by men; and still others live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can…

    • Jeremiah 50:5

      They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it. They will come and join themselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.

    • Romans 2:10–11

      but glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does good, first for the Jew, then for the Greek.

  • Through

    Nehemiah 13:23

    In those days I also saw Jews who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.

    it leads to

    • Ezra 9:1–2

      After these things had been accomplished, the leaders approached me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the surrounding peoples whose abominations are like…

    • Nehemiah 10:30

      We will not give our daughters in marriage to the people of the land, and we will not take their daughters for our sons.

    • Ezra 10:10

      Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful by marrying foreign women, adding to the guilt of Israel.

Where this verse is studied

About Deuteronomy

Moses Viewing the Promised Land, Frederic Edwin Church, 1846. Public domain.
Moses Viewing the Promised Land, Frederic Edwin Church, 1846. Public domain.

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