1 No one who is emasculated {p'tsua: wounded} or has severed genitals may enter the assembly of the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Community Guardian}.
2 No mamzer {mamzer: forbidden-union child} shall enter the assembly of the LORD {YHWH, Community Sanctifier}; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the LORD.
3 No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Legislator}; even to the tenth generation {dor: sequence of descendants} none of them may ever enter the assembly of the LORD.
4 On account of the matter that they did not come to meet you with bread {lechem: daily sustenance} and with water on the journey when you came out from Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam {Bilam: foreign diviner}, son of Beor from Pethor in Aram Naharayim, to curse you.
5 But the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheikha, Covenant Protector} was not willing to listen to Balaam, and he turned the curse {kelalah: pronouncement of harm} into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loved you.
6 You must not work for their peace {shelomam: communal well-being} or for their prosperity {tovatam: sustainable success} throughout all your days—forever.
7 Do not treat an Edomite with contempt, for he is your brother {achikha: kin by blood}. Do not treat an Egyptian with contempt, because you were a sojourner {ger: non-native resident} in his land.
8 Children {banim: male and female offspring} who are born to them may enter the assembly of the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Community Guardian} in the third generation.
9 When your camp goes out to fight your enemies, you must be on guard {venishmarta: carefully watch} against everything evil {ra: morally harmful}.
10 If there is among you a man who is not clean {tahor: ceremonially pure} because of a nocturnal occurrence {mikreh laylah: night-time event}, then he shall go out to the outside of the camp; he shall not enter into the midst of the camp.
11 And it shall be that at evening {erev: dusk onset} he must wash himself in water; and when the sun sets {hashemesh: sun’s descent} he may enter the camp.
12 And you shall have a place {veyadi: euphemistic term} outside the camp, and you shall go out there—outside {mikhuts: beyond the perimeter}.
13 And you shall have a peg {yated: digging implement} among your equipment, and when you go outside to sit, you shall dig with it, turn back, and cover your excrement {tzeatekha: waste material}.
14 For the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheicha, Present Protector} moves about in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to give your enemies before you. Therefore, your camp must be holy {kadosh: set apart}, so that He will not see among you any nakedness of a thing and turn away from after you.
15 You shall not return {tasgir: deliver by legal authority} to his master a servant who has escaped {yinnatzel: sought refuge} to you from his master.
16 He shall reside among you, in the place he chooses in one of your gates {sha'ar: city entrances}, wherever it is good {tov: advantageous} for him; you shall not oppress him.
17 There shall be no female cult prostitute {kedesha: temple harlot} among the daughters of Israel, and there shall be no male cult prostitute {kadesh: temple sodomite} among the sons of Israel.
18 You shall not bring the hire of a prostitute or the price of a dog into the house of the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheikha, Covenant Lord} for any vow {neder: solemn pledge}, because both are an abomination to the LORD your God.
19 You shall not charge interest {neshekh: profit from lending} to your brother on silver, on food, or on anything {kol-davar: comprehensive scope} that can be lent with interest.
20 You may lend to a foreigner at interest, but you shall not lend to your brother at interest, so that the LORD your God {YHWH Elohekha, Blessing Giver} may bless you in every undertaking {mishlakh: business activity} of your hand in the land you are entering to possess.
21 When you make a vow to the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheikha, Covenant Upholder}, you must not be slow to fulfill it {leshalemo: complete payment}, for the LORD your God will surely demand it from you, and it will be sin in you.
22 And if you refrain {techdal: voluntary abstention} from vowing, there will be no sin {cheit: moral failure} in you.
23 The utterance of your lips you shall keep, and you shall do just as you vowed to the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheikha, Covenant Witness}, a freewill offering {nedavah: Voluntary Commitment} that you spoke with your mouth.
24 When you step into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat grapes until your appetite {nefesh: inner appetite} is satisfied, but you shall not deposit any in your own vessel {keli: personal container}.
25 When you enter your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pick heads {mallilot: grain ears} with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle {hermesh: harvesting tool} to your neighbor’s standing crop.