Meditate

23. Miscellaneous Laws

Those Excluded from the Assembly

23

No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.

² Those born of an illicit union shall not be admitted to the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of their descendants shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.

³ No Ammonite or Moabite shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of their descendants shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord,⁴because they did not meet you with food and water on your journey out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.⁵(Yet the Lord your God refused to heed Balaam; the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you.)⁶You shall never promote their welfare or their prosperity as long as you live.

⁷ You shall not abhor any of the Edomites, for they are your kin. You shall not abhor any of the Egyptians, because you were an alien residing in their land.⁸The children of the third generation that are born to them may be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.

Sanitary, Ritual, and Humanitarian Precepts

⁹ When you are encamped against your enemies you shall guard against any impropriety.

¹⁰ If one of you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he shall go outside the camp; he must not come within the camp.¹¹When evening comes, he shall wash himself with water, and when the sun has set, he may come back into the camp.

¹² You shall have a designated area outside the camp to which you shall go.¹³With your utensils you shall have a trowel; when you relieve yourself outside, you shall dig a hole with it and then cover up your excrement.¹⁴Because the Lord your God travels along with your camp, to save you and to hand over your enemies to you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.

¹⁵ Slaves who have escaped to you from their owners shall not be given back to them.¹⁶They shall reside with you, in your midst, in any place they choose in any one of your towns, wherever they please; you shall not oppress them.

¹⁷ None of the daughters of Israel shall be a temple prostitute; none of the sons of Israel shall be a temple prostitute.¹⁸You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a male prostitute into the house of the Lord your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are abhorrent to the Lord your God.

¹⁹ You shall not charge interest on loans to another Israelite, interest on money, interest on provisions, interest on anything that is lent.²⁰On loans to a foreigner you may charge interest, but on loans to another Israelite you may not charge interest, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your undertakings in the land that you are about to enter and possess.

²¹ If you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not postpone fulfilling it; for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you would incur guilt.²²But if you refrain from vowing, you will not incur guilt.²³Whatever your lips utter you must diligently perform, just as you have freely vowed to the Lord your God with your own mouth.

²⁴ If you go into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in a container.

²⁵ If you go into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.

7. Paul's Hardships and Joys

Paul’s Joy at the Church’s Repentance

² Make room in your hearts for us; we have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one.³I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together.⁴I often boast about you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with consolation; I am overjoyed in all our affliction.

⁵ For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted in every way—disputes without and fears within.⁶But God, who consoles the downcast, consoled us by the arrival of Titus,⁷and not only by his coming, but also by the consolation with which he was consoled about you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more.

12. Psalm 12

Psalm 12

Plea for Help in Evil Times

To the leader: according to The Sheminith. A Psalm of David.

1

Help, O Lord, for there is no longer anyone who is godly;

the faithful have disappeared from humankind.

2

They utter lies to each other;

with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.

3

May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,

the tongue that makes great boasts,

4

those who say, “With our tongues we will prevail;

our lips are our own—who is our master?”

5

“Because the poor are despoiled, because the needy groan,

I will now rise up,” says the Lord;

“I will place them in the safety for which they long.”

6

The promises of the Lord are promises that are pure,

silver refined in a furnace on the ground,

purified seven times.

7

You, O Lord, will protect us;

you will guard us from this generation forever.

8

On every side the wicked prowl,

as vileness is exalted among humankind.