“If a man’s testicles are crushed or his penis is cut off, he may not be admitted to 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.
- BSB No man with crushed or severed genitals may enter the assembly 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.
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, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
- Isa 56:3–4Let no foreigner, who has joined himself to Yahweh, speak, saying, “Yahweh will surely separate me from his people.” Do not let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”
- Neh 13:1–3On that day they read in the book of Moses in the hearing of the people; and it was found written in it that an Ammonite and a Moabite should not enter into the assembly of God forever,
- Deut 23:2–3A person born of a forbidden union shall not enter into Yahweh’s assembly; even to the tenth generation shall no one of his enter into Yahweh’s assembly.
- Lev 21:17–21“Say to Aaron, ‘None of your offspring throughout their generations who has a defect may approach to offer the bread of his God.
- Lev 22:22–24Blind, injured, maimed, having a wart, festering, or having a running sore: you shall not offer these to Yahweh, nor make an offering by fire of them on the altar to Yahweh.
- Deut 23:8The children of the third generation who are born to them may enter into Yahweh’s assembly.
- Lam 1:10The adversary has spread out his hand on all her pleasant things: for she has seen that the nations are entered into her sanctuary, concerning whom you commanded that they should not enter into your assembly.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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.