Commentaria in Deuteronomium
Chapter the Twenty-third
First, the eunuch, the Ammonite and the Moabite are barred for ever from the Church of God; likewise the Idumean and the Egyptian down to the third generation, and the bastard down to the tenth. Secondly, vers. 10, God commands the camp to be clean from pollution and filth. Thirdly, vers. 17, he forbids fornication. Fourthly, vers. 19, he forbids them to lend upon usury to a brother, but to a stranger. Fifthly, vers. 21, he commands a vow to be paid without delay.
1. The eunuch, whose stones are broken or cut away, and who hath his yard cut off, shall not enter into the church of the Lord. 2. A bastard, that is, one born of a harlot, shall not enter into the church of the Lord, even to the tenth generation. 3. The Ammonite and the Moabite, even after the tenth generation, shall not enter into the church of the Lord for ever: 4. because they would not meet you with bread and water in the way, when you came out of Egypt; and because they hired against thee Balaam the son of Beor, of Mesopotamia of Syria, to curse thee: 5. and the Lord thy God would not hear Balaam, and he turned his curse into thy blessing, because he loved thee. 6. Thou shalt not make peace with them, nor seek any good for them all the days of thy life for ever. 7. Thou shalt not abhor the Edomite, because he is thy brother; nor the Egyptian, because thou wast a stranger in his land. 8. They that are born of them in the third generation, shall enter into the church of the Lord. 9. When thou goest out against thy enemies to fight, thou shalt keep thyself from every evil thing. 10. If there be among you any man that is defiled in a dream by night, he shall go forth out of the camp, 11. and shall not return before he be washed with water in the evening: and after sunset he shall return into the camp. 12. Thou shalt have a place without the camp, to which thou mayest go for the necessities of nature, 13. having a stake in thy girdle: and when thou sittest down, thou shalt dig round about, and with the earth that is dug up thou shalt cover 14. that which thou art eased of (for the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of the camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thy enemies to thee), and let thy camp be holy, and let no uncleanness appear in it, lest he leave thee. 15. Thou shalt not deliver up to his master the servant that is fled to thee; 16. he shall dwell with thee in the place that shall please him, and shall rest in one of thy cities: trouble him not. 17. There shall be no whore among the daughters of Israel, nor whoremonger among the sons of Israel. 18. Thou shalt not offer the hire of a harlot, nor the price of a dog, in the house of the Lord thy God, whatsoever it be that thou hast vowed: because both of these are an abomination to the Lord thy God. 19. Thou shalt not lend to thy brother money to usury, nor corn, nor any other thing, 20. but to the stranger. But to thy brother thou shalt lend that which he wanteth, without usury: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all thy works in the land which thou shalt go in to possess. 21. When thou hast made a vow to the Lord thy God, thou shalt not delay to pay it: because the Lord thy God will require it: and if thou delay, it shall be imputed to thee for a sin. 22. If thou wilt not promise, thou shalt be without sin. 23. But that which is once gone out of thy lips thou shalt observe, and shalt do as thou hast promised to the Lord thy God, and hast spoken with thy own will and with thy own mouth. 24. If thou go into thy neighbour’s vineyard, thou mayest eat as many grapes as thou pleasest: but carry none out with thee. 25. If thou go into thy friend’s corn, thou mayest break the ears, and rub them in thy hand: but not cut with a sickle.
the privileges of the seventh year of release, and of the year of jubilee, as I said on Leviticus xxv, 44, and very many others. Therefore eunuchs, Ammonites, Moabites, etc., are not here barred from Judaism, faith, salvation and the temple; for this seems foreign to the goodness of God: they could therefore become proselytes, and so be admitted to the phase and the other sacred rites of the Jews, as is plain from Exodus xii, 48.
1. THE EUNUCH, WHOSE STONES ARE BROKEN OR CUT AWAY, AND WHO HATH HIS YARD CUT OFF, SHALL NOT ENTER INTO THE CHURCH OF THE LORD.—By “Church” some here understand the court of the temple or of the tabernacle; for so it seems to be explained in Lamentations chap. i, 10, where it is said:
“She hath seen the Gentiles enter into her sanctuary, concerning whom thou gavest commandment that they should not enter into thy church.” So Theodoret, Olympiodorus and Denis the Carthusian on Lamentations i, 10. Secondly, Cajetan and Oleaster understand by Church the chiefs of the Church and assembly of the Jews, as if to say: The eunuch, etc., shall not be of the magistracy of the Jews. But I say: for “shall not enter into the Church of the Lord”
They are barred, then, only from the political society of the Jews, so as not to be reckoned citizens, nor to have the rights of citizens among the Jews. So “Church” is taken for the assembly of the people, Numbers xx, 4, and Judges xx, 2, where it is said: “All the tribes of Israel assembled in the Church of God.” Whence, explaining, he adds:
the Hebrew is, shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord, that is, be of the holy people, be reckoned an Israelite and a son of Abraham, have the right of marrying an Israelite woman, enjoy the rights of the Jews. To enter the Church of the Lord is therefore to be numbered with the Israelite people, and to enjoy the graces and privileges which the Israelites enjoyed in the law, such as that money was not given them on usury, that they enjoyed 2. THE BASTARD SHALL NOT ENTER INTO THE CHURCH OF THE LORD. Vers. 2.—“Mamzer” is a stranger, spurious, illegitimate, born not of his own lawful wife but of another’s, namely born of a harlot, from the root zur, that is, strange, foreign: or because the adulterous mother, since he is a stranger, passes him off on her husband as his offspring.
UP TO THE TENTH GENERATION.—The eleventh therefore, the grandson, descending from a bastard, the stain and mark of birth being as it were wiped away, could be received into the assembly and marriage of the Jews.
Tropologically, the eunuch signifies the sterility of the soul, the bastard an evil fruit: these are to be kept out of the Church of God. So Theodoret, Questions xxv and xxvi.
6. THOU SHALT NOT MAKE PEACE WITH THEM (the Ammonites and Moabites, who were enemies to thee, and hired Balaam against thee to curse thee), NOR SEEK ANY GOOD FOR THEM,—as if to say: Thou shalt have no communication with them as to living together and temporal commerce, lest they again be a scandal to thee, and as from innate hatred endeavour to seduce thee, allure thee to idolatry and destroy thee. God here bars eunuchs, bastards, Moabites and Ammonites from his people, both for the decorum and honour of his people: for which cause St. Ambrose would not admit actors into the Christian Church; and for the crimes and innate hatred of the Ammonites and Moabites toward the Jews, as I have said. Whence Theodoret: Moab, he says, and Ammon on account of their tainted root, and on account of impiety, are barred from the Church of God. Women are excepted; for Ruth the Moabitess married Booz, the great-grandfather of David.