Text: Nehemiah 13:1-3
OT Text Referred to: Deuteronomy 23:3-6
Subject: Enforcing the Ammonite-Moabite exclusion from the assembly
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Direct Quotation
Connection Method(s): None
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.