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Deuteronomy 23 Bible study: Turned into a blessing
Moab was kept out for what it did, no bread and a hired curse, yet "the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing to you, because the LORD your God loved you" (23:5). Israel may not abhor an Egyptian (23:7), the LORD walks in the middle of the camp (23:14), and a servant who escaped may live "in the place which he shall choose" (23:16), in words Deuteronomy uses for the LORD's choosing.
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“Nevertheless the LORD your God wouldn’t listen to Balaam, but the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing to you, because the LORD your God loved you.”
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“Deuteronomy 23:5 says the LORD turned Balaam's curse into a blessing because he loved Israel.”
Is that in Deuteronomy 23, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
The curse turned into a blessing
The chapter gives its reasons for keeping the Ammonite and the Moabite out of the LORD's assembly (23:3), and both are things they did: "because they didn’t meet you with bread and with water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you" (23:4). Numbers 22-24 tells the story; Balak, "king of Moab", sent for Balaam (Numbers 22:4-5). Then Moses says what the LORD did with the curse: "Nevertheless the LORD your God wouldn’t listen to Balaam, but the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing to you, because the LORD your God loved you" (23:5). Balak had said as much: "I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them altogether" (Numbers 23:11). Joshua gives the LORD's words, "I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he blessed you still" (Joshua 24:10), and when this law was read to the people in Nehemiah's day, the same line came with it: "however, our God turned the curse into a blessing" (Nehemiah 13:2).
Where it leads to Jesus
The guiltless in the grain field
Deuteronomy 23:25leads toMatthew 12:7
"When you come into your neighbor’s standing grain, then you may pluck the ears with your hand" (23:25). On a Sabbath Jesus' disciples "were hungry and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat" (Matthew 12:1), and the Pharisees said, "Behold, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath" (Matthew 12:2). Jesus answered with what David did, the priests in the temple and a word from Hosea (Matthew 12:3-7), and said, "you wouldn’t have condemned the guiltless" (Matthew 12:7). Matthew doesn't cite Deuteronomy 23, so setting them together is a reading. Some note that the plucking itself is what 23:25 allows, that the charge named only the day, and that Jesus calls the disciples guiltless. Others read his answer as resting only on the grounds he gives (Matthew 12:3-8), with no look to Deuteronomy's law of the neighbor's field.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Deuteronomy 23
That was a taste
The rest of Deuteronomy 23 is waiting in Favor
- Not the Edomite, not the Egyptian
- The LORD in the middle of the camp
- A servant who escaped
- No interest to your brother
- When you vow
- Eat, but don't carry it away
- 9 questions as you read
- 13 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach Deuteronomy 23 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
קָהָלqahalsay ka-HAL
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "assembly, convocation, congregation"; Strong's: "assemblage (usually concretely)". The chapter says "the LORD’s assembly" six times (23:1, 23:2 twice, 23:3 twice, 23:8). Deuteronomy uses qahal eleven times, and the other five are Israel gathered together: "all your assembly on the mountain" at Horeb (5:22), "the day of the assembly" (9:10, 10:4, 18:16), and "all the assembly of Israel" who heard Moses' song (31:30).
For your group
Deuteronomy 23 Bible study questions
- 1"The LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing to you, because the LORD your God loved you" (23:5). Where have you seen something meant against you turned into good?
- 2Israel was not to abhor the Egyptian, "because you lived as a foreigner in his land" (23:7). Is there a person or place from your past that you find it hard not to despise? What would it look like to let that go?
- 3A neighbor could eat his fill in your vineyard, but not carry any away (23:24). Where could you leave room for others to share in what God has given you?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Deuteronomy 23 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home