Deuteronomy 23 is, to me, largely inexplicable.
23 “He whose testicles are crushed or whose male member is cut off shall not enter the assembly of the Lord.
KJV puts this more quaintly: "He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD." Fortunately, Isaiah didn't go along with this: "Neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree. For thus saith the LORD unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. Isaiah 56:3-5"
2 “No bastard shall enter the assembly of the Lord; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the Lord.
Uhm, that seems kind of not fair.
3 “No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the Lord; even to the tenth generation none belonging to them shall enter the assembly of the Lord for ever; 4 because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came forth out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Be′or from Pethor of Mesopota′mia, to curse you. 5 Nevertheless the Lord your God would not hearken to Balaam; but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you. 6 You shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days for ever.
Uhm, what's this tenth generation thing? They're still Ammonites or Moabites. Also, that's not what happened. Balaam refused to curse the Israelites. Also, King David was the great grandson of a Moabite woman. Just sayin'.
7 “You shall not abhor an E′domite, for he is your brother; you shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a sojourner in his land. 8 The children of the third generation that are born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord.
In Kings and Ezekiel, God has the Israelites slaughter the Edomites.
9 “When you go forth against your enemies and are in camp, then you shall keep yourself from every evil thing.
10 “If there is among you any man who is not clean by reason of what chances to him by night, then he shall go outside the camp, he shall not come within the camp; 11 but when evening comes on, he shall bathe himself in water, and when the sun is down, he may come within the camp.
This apparently refers to wet dreams. I just wouldn't tell anyone.
12 “You shall have a place outside the camp and you shall go out to it; 13 and you shall have a stick with your weapons; and when you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it, and turn back and cover up your excrement. 14 Because the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to save you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, that he may not see anything indecent among you, and turn away from you.
Yeah, you wouldn't want God to accidentally step in your shit.
15 “You shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you; 16 he shall dwell with you, in your midst, in the place which he shall choose within one of your towns, where it pleases him best; you shall not oppress him.
This is really weird because as we have seen, slavery is fully condoned throughout the Torah. There are literally dozens of references, but I'll just give you this one: "Thy bond-men and thy bond-maids which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you: of them shall ye buy bond-men and bond-maids. Moreover, of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land. And they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession, they shall be your bond-man forever. Leviticus 25:44-46"
17 “There shall be no cult prostitute of the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a cult prostitute of the sons of Israel. 18 You shall not bring the hire of a harlot, or the wages of a dog,[a] into the house of the Lord your God in payment for any vow; for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.
"Dog" is slang for a homosexual. Jut so you know.
19 “You shall not lend upon interest to your brother, interest on money, interest on victuals, interest on anything that is lent for interest. 20 To a foreigner you may lend upon interest, but to your brother you shall not lend upon interest; that the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land which you are entering to take possession of it.
As we all know, in medieval Europe, Christians were not allowed to charge interest. Hence Jews became money lenders, which gave them an income, but also generated resentment which is still one of the bases of antisemitism. (Viz. Shylock.)
21 “When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not be slack to pay it; for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and it would be sin in you. 22 But if you refrain from vowing, it shall be no sin in you. 23 You shall be careful to perform what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth.
24 “When 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 your vessel. 25 When 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.
Well stay out of my garden then.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 23:18 Or sodomite
1 comment:
Two things bother me about this passage, Deuteronomy 23:
1) The hypocrisy around "other people's" slaves"
2) The body shaming that seems to have started with Genesis. To this day, when people are driving and we lose our tempers because someone else has the nerve to do the same careless stuff we do, the first invective that comes to mind is invariably a body-shaming term, something that throws shade on a body part or function.
Not a healthy way to live or see ourselves. I think Whitman would agree.
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