John Gill Commentary Deuteronomy 23

He that is wounded in the stones
In any of them, not accidentally, but purposely; which are crushed and bruised by the hands of men, with a design to make him unfit for generation, or to make an eunuch of him:

or that has his privy member cut by himself or another ,
and is a thorough eunuch by the hands of men; for of such eunuchs that are made by men, and not born so, the law speaks; so Maimonides interprets it {f}; (See Gill on Matthew 19:12)

shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; which is to be understood not of the sanctuary of the Lord, or of being refused admittance into the church of God, and to join in religious rites, and partake of sacred ordinances, which all Israelites, and strangers that were proselytes, had a right unto; such might bring their offerings, keep the passover (Exodus 12:48Exodus 12:49) (Leviticus 22:18) (Numbers 9:14) (Numbers 15:14Numbers 15:15) nor of the commonwealth of Israel, as if unfit to be members of civil society; it cannot be thought that such defects should abridge them of their civil rights and privileges:

but by the congregation is to be understood the elders, judges, and representatives of the people, that met together in some one place to execute judgment; see (Numbers 35:12Numbers 35:24Numbers 35:25) (Psalms 82:1) , into which such persons were not to be admitted; either because disgraceful and dishonourable, or because of the influence such defects have on their minds, they thereby becoming effeminate, irresolute, and wanting courage, as well as in opposition to the customs and usages of the Heathens, with whom it was common to admit such persons to civil offices; hence the word eunuch is sometimes used for an officer, (Genesis 37:36) and elsewhere; the Jews ^F7 restrain this law to marriage, but unnecessarily.

FOOTNOTES:

• F7: Targum Jon. in loc. Misn. Yebamot, c. 8. sect. 2, 4, 5, 6. Maimon. Moreh Nevochim, par. 3. c. 49.

A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord , &c.] That is born of whoredom, as the Targum of Jonathan; and for the sake of avoiding whoredom and deterring from it was this law made, according to Maimonides ^F8, that adulterers might see, as he observes, that they affect their whole family with an irreparable stain, should they commit such an infamous action; though the Jews commonly interpret it of one that is born of any of those incestuous copulations forbidden in (Leviticus 18:1–30) which they gather from this following upon, and being near unto one of those incests mentioned in the last verse of the preceding chapter ^F9; and it is a rule with them ^F11, that persons born of such copulations were reckoned bastards.

Now such an one, according to Jarchi, might not marry an Israelitish woman, or rather might not be admitted into the assembly of elders, or bear any public office. Jephthah may seem to be an objection to this, who was the son of an harlot, (Judges 11:1) which might be owing to the badness of the times, the laws of God being neglected, or to the providence of God so ordering it, who is not bound by his own laws, though men are; nor was he the son of a common harlot, nor of an incestuous person, but of his father's concubine; besides some think such only are intended who were born of strangers and not Israelites:

even unto his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the Lord; which seems as if he might at the eleventh; but it is generally interpreted never, as is gathered from the following verse, and from the tenth number being an absolute and perfect one. Yet according to the Jewish writers, there were ways by which their posterity could become legitimate. For example, they say that bastards may be purified (or legitimated) in this way: if one marries a servant maid, the child is a servant; if the servant becomes free, his son is a free man ^{l}.

FOOTNOTES:

• F8: Targum Jon. in loc. Misn. Yebamot, c. 8. sect. 2, 4, 5, 6. Maimon. Moreh Nevochim, par. 3. c. 49.
• F9: Bartenora in Misn. Kiddushin, c. 3. sect. 12.
• F11: Misn. Kiddushin, c. 3. sect. 12. & Misn. Yebamot, c. 4. sect. 13. Jarchi & Aben Ezra in loc.

Or marry an Israelitish woman, as Jarchi, and so the Targum of Jonathan,``the male Ammonites and Moabites are not fit to take a wife of the congregation of the Lord;'' for the Jews restrain this to men, because it is, as Aben Ezra observes, an Ammonite, not an Ammonitess, a Moabite, not a Moabitess; they allow that females of those nations might be married to Israelites, that is, provided they were proselytesses, as Ruth was ^F13 .

even to their tenth generation, shall they not enter into the
congregation of the Lord for ever ; that is, not only to the tenth generation, but for ever; and this law was understood as in force in Nehemiah's time, which was more than ten generations from the making of it; though now, as these nations are no more a distinct people, they suppose it is no longer binding ^F14 .

FOOTNOTES:

• F13: Misn. Yebamot, c. 8. sect. 3.
• F14: Misn. Yadaim, c. 4. sect. 4.

Because they met you not with bread and with water
To supply them therewith, either as a gift, which was a piece of humanity to strangers and travellers, or rather to sell unto them, for on no other terms did the Israelites desire their bread and their water:

in the way when ye came forth out of Egypt ;
not as soon as they came forth from thence, for it was near forty years after; but it was while they were in the way from thence, as they were journeying to the land of Canaan, and so were travellers, and should have had kindness shown them as such; for though they needed not bread and water, God providing both for them, yet this does not excuse the inhumanity of these people: the words are to be understood by way of distribution; this charge here only belongs to the Ammonites, for it appears that the Moabites did give them bread and water for money, (Deuteronomy 2:28Deuteronomy 2:29) as what follows belongs peculiarly to the Moabites and not the Ammonites:

and because they hired against thee Balaam the son of Pethor of
Mesopotamia, to curse thee ;
this the Moabites did in conjunction with the Midianites, but the Ammonites had no concern in it; see (Numbers 22:7) , it was not therefore because the Moabites and Ammonites were born in incest that they were forbidden entrance into the congregation of the Lord; which might have been thought to have been the reason of it, these instances following upon the former, had not these reasons been assigned.

Nevertheless, the Lord your God would not hearken to Balaam ,
&c.] To his solicitations, and the methods he took to prevail on the Lord to suffer him to curse Israel, which he gladly would have done for the sake of Balak's reward:

but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing to you ;
in the very mouth of Balaam, as the Targum of Jonathan; for when he opened his mouth and Balak expected he would have cursed Israel, and he intended it, could he have been permitted, the Lord overruled his tongue, and put such words into his mouth, that instead of cursing Israel, he blessed him; see (Numbers 23:11) ,

because the Lord your God loved you ;
and therefore would not suffer them to be cursed; for whom the Lord loves they are blessed, and shall be so in time and to eternity.