What Does Deuteronomy 23:9 Mean?

Deuteronomy 23:9-14. **PURITY OF THE CAMP.** (9) **When the host goeth forth against thine enemies . . . keep thee.**—“Because Satan maketh his accusations in the hour of danger” (Rashi). (10) **Uncleanness that chanceth him by night.** As in Leviticus 15:16. (11) **When the sun is down.**—“No man is clean (after ceremonial uncleanness) except at the going down of the sun” (Rashi). (12) **Without the camp.**—It must not be forgotten that this is the camp of the *army, *not the whole encampment of Israel in the wilderness. The entire passage is continuous from Deuteronomy 23:9. Hence the whole discussion raised, after the appearance of Dr. Colenso’s work, on the size of the camp of Israel and the possibility of obeying this rule, was simply waste of words, and arose out of a misunderstanding of the matter under consideration. The sanitary value of the rule has been abundantly demonstrated in our own day. (13) **A paddle**—rather, a pin, or spike, like that with which Jael slew Sisera. The word for “weapon” does not occur elsewhere. The LXX. translates it *“*a pin or tent-peg *at thy girdle;” *the Hebrew word (*âzên*) being like the Greek (ζώνη)*. *But both Targums interpret the word as “weapon,” connecting it with the Hebrew *zayin, *which has that meaning. The *hinder end of the spear *in Abner’s hand was sharp enough to strike Asahel a fatal blow when he followed him (2Samuel 2:23). Saul’s spear also was “stuck in the ground at his bolster” (1Samuel 26:7), probably with its point upwards, by the same spike. (14) **For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of . . . thee.**—A most beautiful argument for purity in every sense. It was evidently present to St. Paul’s mind in 2Corinthians 6:16 to 2Corinthians 7:1, “God hath said, I will dwell in them, and *walk in them. . . . *Having therefore these promises . . . let us *cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, *perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”