Intertextuality Pair

Nehemiah 13:1-3 → Deuteronomy 23:3-6

Quotation

Later text

Nehemiah 13:1-3BSB

At 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, because they had not met the Israelites with food and water, but had hired Balaam to call down a curse against them (although our God had turned the curse into a blessing). As soon as the people heard this law, they excluded from Israel all of foreign descent.

Earlier text

Deuteronomy 23:3-6BSB

No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even to the tenth generation. For they did not meet you with food and water on your way out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram-naharaim to curse you. Yet the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam, and the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loves you. You are not to seek peace or prosperity from them as long as you live.

Significance

Nehemiah 13:1-3 records a public reading of the Torah in which the people encounter the prohibition that "no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God" — a near-verbatim quotation of Deuteronomy 23:3 (לֹא־יָבֹא עַמּוֹנִי וּמוֹאָבִי בִּקְהַל יְהוָה, lo-yavo Ammoni uMoavi biqhal YHWH). The narrative even supplies the Deuteronomic rationale: they hired Balaam to curse Israel, but God turned the curse into blessing. Nehemiah's immediate enforcement — "they excluded from Israel all of foreign descent" — shows the post-exilic community treating Deuteronomy 23 as directly applicable legislation, applying the assembly exclusion law to their contemporary situation of intermarriage and foreign infiltration.

Found via
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type
Direct Quotation
Connection Method(s)
Redemptive-Historical Progression — the public reading of Nehemiah 13:1-3 applies Deuteronomy 23:3-6 as directly binding law, separating the assembly on the statute's own Balaam rationale; the Mosaic exclusion ordinance advances from Moab-plains legislation to enforced practice in the post-exilic community.

Have a suggestion, or spotted something to fix?
✦ The Hyperlinked Bible