Charles Ellicott Commentary Deuteronomy 23

The rule that a eunuch should not enter into the congregation was undoubtedly intended to prevent the Israelite rulers from making eunuchs of their fellow Israelites. As a counterbalance to this apparent harshness towards the man who had been treated this way, we must read Isaiah 56:3-4, in which a special promise is given to the eunuchs that keep God's Sabbaths and take hold of His covenant.

God will give to them within His house and within His walls “ a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters —an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.” As a special calamity, it was foretold to Hezekiah that some of his descendants should be eunuchs in the palace of the King of Babylon. But Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in whom this prophecy was fulfilled, have ennobled the “children that are of their sort” forevermore.

We have no means of knowing whether the eunuchs who were in the service of the kings of Israel or Judah (1 Samuel 8:15; 1 Kings 22:9; 2 Kings 8:6; 2 Kings 9:32, etc.) were Israelites by birth or not. Ebedmelech, the Ethiopian, who received a special blessing from Jeremiah (Jeremiah 39:15–18), was a foreigner, and so, very possibly, were most, if not all, of his kind in Israel.

Regarding the second clause of this verse, it must be remembered that circumcision was the sign of the covenant of Jehovah; mutilation was a form of heathen self-devotion. (See Galatians 5:12, Revised New Testament, Margin, and Bishop Lightfoot’s comment on that passage.) St. Paul's words in Galatians receive a double meaning from this law. By doing what he refers to, they would cut themselves off from the congregation of the Lord. Rashi also gives another meaning, which would connect the precept with Leviticus 15:2.

A bastard shall not enter. —Such a person would not, even now, be circumcised by the Jews, or permitted to marry an Israelitish woman, or be buried with his people; therefore he was excluded from the covenant. It is manifest how efficacious would be the enforcement of this law also in preserving the purity of family life.

An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter. According to Rashi, “shall not marry an Israelite woman.” It must be remembered that the children, according to Jewish law, follow the father, not the mother. The case of Ruth would not, therefore, be touched by this precept.

Because they did not meet you with bread and with water. —We learn incidentally from this passage how the Moabites and the Ammonites requited the forbearance shown them by the Israelites (Deuteronomy 2:9; Deuteronomy 2:19; Deuteronomy 2:29). No one unacquainted with the details of Israel’s interactions with these people on their journey could have written in this way.

Because they hired Balaam against you. —See Numbers 22, Numbers 31:16, and Numbers 25.

Because the Lord thy God loved thee. —The contrast between what He says to Israel in this book and what He said by Balaam is very striking. (See on Deuteronomy 31:16.)