Font Size
Deuteronomy 23:1
New English Translation
Deuteronomy 23:1
New English Translation
Purity in Public Worship
23 A man with crushed[a] or severed genitals[b] may not enter the assembly of the Lord.[c]
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Deuteronomy 23:1 tn Heb “bruised by crushing,” which many English versions take to refer to crushed testicles (NAB, NRSV, NLT); TEV “who has been castrated.”
- Deuteronomy 23:1 tn Heb “cut off with respect to the penis”; KJV, ASV “hath his privy member cut off”; English versions vary in their degree of euphemism here; cf. NAB, NRSV, TEV, NLT “penis”; NASB “male organ”; NCV “sex organ”; CEV “private parts”; NIV “emasculated by crushing or cutting.”
- Deuteronomy 23:1 sn The Hebrew term translated “assembly” (קָהָל, qahal) does not refer here to the nation as such but to the formal services of the tabernacle or temple. Since emasculated or other sexually abnormal persons were commonly associated with pagan temple personnel, the thrust here may be primarily polemical in intent. One should not read into this anything having to do with the mentally and physically handicapped as fit to participate in the life and ministry of the church.
Deuteronomy 23:1
New International Version
Deuteronomy 23:1
New International Version
Exclusion From the Assembly
23 [a]No one who has been emasculated(A) by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 23:1 In Hebrew texts 23:1-25 is numbered 23:2-26.
New English Translation (NET)
NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.