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The Lord's People

¹ No man who has had part of his sex organ cut off may come into the meeting to worship the Lord.

² No one born to parents who were forbidden by law to marry may come into the meeting to worship the Lord. The descendants for ten generations may not come in either.

³ No Ammonite or Moabite may come into the meeting to worship the Lord, and none of their descendants for ten generations may come in. ⁴ This is because the Ammonites and Moabites did not give you bread and water when you came out of Egypt. And they hired Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor in Northwest Mesopotamia, to put a curse on you. ⁵ But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam. He turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you. ⁶ Don't wish for their peace or success as long as you live.

⁷ Don't hate Edomites; they are your close relatives. Don't hate Egyptians, because you were foreigners in their country. ⁸ The great-grandchildren of these two peoples may come into the meeting to worship the Lord.

Keeping the Camp Clean

⁹ When you are camped in time of war, keep away from unclean things. ¹⁰ If a man becomes unclean during the night, he must go outside the camp and not come back. ¹¹ But when evening comes, he must wash himself, and at sunset he may come back into the camp.

¹² Choose a place outside the camp where people may go to relieve themselves. ¹³ Carry a tent peg with you, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your dung. ¹⁴ The Lord your God moves around through your camp to protect you and to defeat your enemies for you, so the camp must be holy. He must not see anything unclean among you so that he will not leave you.

Other Laws

¹⁵ If an escaped slave comes to you, do not hand over the slave to his master. ¹⁶ Let the slave live with you anywhere he likes, in any town he chooses. Do not mistreat him.

¹⁷ No Israelite man or woman must ever become a temple prostitute. ¹⁸ Do not bring a male or female prostitute's pay to the Temple of the Lord your God to pay what you have promised to the Lord, because the Lord your God hates prostitution.

¹⁹ If you loan your fellow Israelites money or food or anything else, don't make them pay back more than you loaned them. ²⁰ You may charge foreigners, but not fellow Israelites. Then the Lord your God will bless everything you do in the land you are entering to take as your own.

²¹ If you make a promise to give something to the Lord your God, do not be slow to pay it, because the Lord your God demands it from you. Do not be guilty of sin. ²² But if you do not make the promise, you will not be guilty. ²³ You must do whatever you say you will do, because you chose to make the promise to the Lord your God.

²⁴ If you go into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you wish, but do not put any grapes into your basket. ²⁵ If you go into your neighbor's grainfield, you may pick grain with your hands, but you must not cut down your neighbor's grain with your sickle.