Deuteronomy 23:16

23:15-25 It is honourable to shelter and protect the weak, provided they are not wicked. Proselytes and converts to the truth, should be treated with particular tenderness, that they may have no temptation to return to the world. We cannot honour God with our substance, unless it be honestly and honourably come by. It must not only be considered what we give, but how we got it. Where the borrower gets, or hopes to get, it is just that the lender should share the gain; but to him that borrows for necessary food, pity must be showed. That which is gone out of thy lips, as a solemn and deliberate vow, must not be recalled, but thou shalt keep and perform it punctually and fully. They were allowed to pluck and eat of the corn or grapes that grew by the road side; only they must not carry any away. This law intimated what great plenty of corn and wine they should have in Canaan. It provided for the support of poor travellers, and teaches us to be kind to such, teaches us to be ready to distribute, and not to think every thing lost that is given away. Yet it forbids us to abuse the kindness of friends, or to take advantage of what is allowed. Faithfulness to their engagements should mark the people of God; and they should never encroach upon others.

He shall dwell in thee, even among you,.... This seems to confirm the sense of it, being a stranger, a: proselyte servant that is here spoken of, since the law provides for his dwelling among the Israelites: in that place he shall choose, in one of thy gates, where it liketh him best: he was not to be detained by the person that took him up in his own house, or be obliged to dwell in any certain place under, a restraint, but he might take up his abode in any of the cities of Israel, which would be most for his good, profit, and advantage: thou shalt not oppress him; by words, as the Targum of Jonathan adds,"calling him a fugitive servant, or by any opprobrious name.''

15, 16. Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which has escaped from his master unto thee—evidently a servant of the Canaanites or some of the neighboring people, who was driven by tyrannical oppression, or induced, with a view of embracing the true religion, to take refuge in Israel.

Toleration and Non-Toleration in the Congregation of the Lord. - Deuteronomy 23:15 , Deuteronomy 23:16 . A slave who had escaped from his master to Israel was not to be given up, but to be allowed to dwell in the land, wherever he might choose, and not to be oppressed. The reference is to a slave who had fled to them from a foreign country, on account of the harsh treatment which he had received from his heathen master. The plural `adoniym denotes the rule.

[Bible] 23:8. They that are born of them, in the third generation shall enter into the church of the Lord. 23:9. When thou goest out to war against thy enemies, thou shalt keep thyself from every evil thing. 23:10. If there be among you any man, that is defiled in a dream by night, he shall go forth out of the camp, 23:11. And shall not return, before he be washed with water in the evening: and after sunset he shall return into the camp. 23:12. Thou shalt have a place without the camp, to which thou mayst go for the necessities of nature, 23:13. Carrying a paddle at thy girdle. And when thou sittest down, thou shalt dig round about, and with the earth that is dug up thou shalt cover 23:14. That which thou art eased of: (for the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thy enemies to thee:) and let thy camp be holy, and let no uncleanness appear therein, lest he go away from thee. No uncleanness... This caution against suffering any filth in the camp, was to teach them to fly the filth of sin, which driveth God away from the soul. 23:15. Thou shalt not deliver to his master the servant that is fled to thee. 23:16. He shall dwell with thee in the place that shall please him, and shall rest in one of thy cities: give him no trouble. 23:17. There shall be no whore among the daughters of Israel, nor whoremonger among the sons of Israel. 23:18. Thou shalt not offer the hire of a strumpet, nor the price of a dog, in the house of the Lord thy God, whatsoever it be that thou hast vowed: because both these are an abomination to the Lord thy God. 23:19. Thou shalt not lend to thy brother money to usury, nor corn, nor any other thing: 23:20. But to the stranger. To thy brother thou shalt lend that which he wanteth, without usury: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all thy works in the land, which thou shalt go in to possess.

Deuteronomy 23:15-16 . The servant which is escaped from his master — It seems, from the connection, that this has a particular relation to times of war, when heathen soldiers or servants might desert and come over to the Israelites with intent to turn proselytes to the true religion. In which case, they were neither to send them back, and expose them to the severity of their heathen masters, nor use them hardly themselves, but permit them to live peaceably, and with full enjoyment of all the liberties and privileges of a proselyte in Israel, Leviticus 19:33 ; Leviticus 19:35 . It may be understood, likewise, of such foreign servants as, upon inquiry, appeared to be unjustly oppressed by their masters. For it is not strange if the great God, who hates all tyranny, and styles himself the refuge of the oppressed, should interpose his authority to rescue such persons from their cruel masters. He shall dwell with thee in the place which he shall choose — This shows plainly that the passage is not to be understood of the servants of the Israelites their brethren, but of aliens and strangers; he is said to be escaped, and to be allowed to dwell among them, which the servant of an Israelite was supposed to do before.

[Reformed Biblical] Of such as came to them out of a desire to embrace the true ## religion, which possibly his master perceiving endeavoured by force to restrain him from, as it may be probably thought from his choosing and liking to live among the Israelites, expressed #Deuteronomy 23:16 . Now if this great and supreme Master, to whom all other masters are but servants, and they and theirs are absolutely in his power, shall receive and protect one that gives up himself to his service against the will of the under-master, who in this case rebels against his sovereign Lord, what shadow is there of injustice in the case? Ver. 16. Taking advantage from his low and afflicted condition to be unreasonable or injurious to him. ## Ver. 17. No common prostitute, such, as were tolerated and encouraged by the Gentiles, and used even in their religious worship. Of the daughters of Israel; not that such practices were allowed to the strangers among them, as is evident from many scriptures and reasons, but that it was in a peculiar manner, and upon special reasons, forbidden to them, as being much more odious in them than in strangers; though the words may be rendered among the ## daughters , and so in the following clause, among the sons , for the Hebrew mem is sometimes used in that sense, as #Numbers 22:22 Psalms 31:12 , and so it notes that none of that sort should be permitted among them, whether Jews or strangers. A sodomite; who defileth or suffereth himself to be defiled with mankind.