No man with crushed or severed genitals may enter the assembly of the LORD.
Parallel translations
- WEB He who is emasculated by crushing or cutting shall not enter into Yahweh’s assembly.
- KJV He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD.
- NKJV “He who is emasculated by crushing or mutilation shall not enter the assembly of the Lord.
- NASB “No one who is emasculated or has his male organ cut off may enter the assembly of the Lord.
- NLT “If a man’s testicles are crushed or his penis is cut off, he may not be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
A man physically emasculated is excluded from the LORD's assembly. The law guarded the wholeness associated with worship in that era.
Overview
Exclusion from the assembly here concerns formal covenant standing, often linked to pagan self-mutilation and the symbolic wholeness required in approaching God. It was never a statement of personal worth. Strikingly, Isaiah 56:3-5 promises the faithful eunuch a name better than sons, and the gospel breaks down such barriers, as the Ethiopian eunuch's joyful baptism shows (Acts 8:36-39).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Gal 3:28There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
- Isa 56:3–4Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, “The LORD will utterly exclude me from His people.” And let the eunuch not say, “I am but a dry tree.”
- Neh 13:1–3At that time the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people, and in it they found the passage stating that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God,
- Deut 23:2–3No one of illegitimate birth may enter the assembly of the LORD, nor may any of his descendants, even to the tenth generation.
- Lev 21:17–21“Say to Aaron, ‘For the generations to come, none of your descendants who has a physical defect may approach to offer the food of his God.
- Lev 22:22–24You are not to present to the LORD any animal that is blind, injured, or maimed, or anything with a running sore, a festering rash, or a scab; you must not put any of these on the altar as an offering made by fire to the LORD.
- Deut 23:8The third generation of children born to them may enter the assembly of the LORD.
- Lam 1:10The adversary has seized all her treasures. For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary—those You had forbidden to enter Your assembly.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 23:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.