◄ Deuteronomy 23:13 ►
And you must have a digging tool in your equipment so that when you relieve yourself you can dig a hole and cover up your excrement.
Study Bible
And you must have a digging tool in your equipment
This directive is part of the broader Mosaic Law given to the Israelites. The requirement for a digging tool highlights the importance of maintaining cleanliness and hygiene within the camp. In ancient times, sanitation was crucial to prevent the spread of disease, especially in a nomadic setting. The tool would have been a simple implement, possibly made of wood or metal, reflecting the practical needs of a people on the move. This command underscores God's concern for the physical well-being of His people, as well as the spiritual principle of purity.

so that when you relieve yourself
The act of relieving oneself is a natural human function, yet the law addresses it with specific instructions. This reflects the holistic nature of the Law, which encompasses all aspects of life, both sacred and mundane. The Israelites were to be distinct from surrounding nations, many of which did not have such sanitary practices. This command also serves as a reminder of the Israelites' dependence on God for guidance in all areas of life.

you can dig a hole and cover up your excrement.
Covering excrement was a practical measure to maintain cleanliness and prevent disease, but it also had spiritual implications. The act of covering waste can be seen as a metaphor for dealing with sin, which must be addressed and not left exposed. This practice ensured that the camp remained holy, as God dwelt among His people (Deuteronomy 23:14). The principle of cleanliness is echoed in the New Testament, where believers are called to live pure and holy lives (1 Peter 1:15-16). This command also prefigures the ultimate cleansing from sin provided through Jesus Christ, who covers our iniquities.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Moses
The author of Deuteronomy, delivering God's laws to the Israelites.

2. Israelites
The recipients of the law, God's chosen people, journeying through the wilderness.

3. Wilderness
The setting where the Israelites are traveling, requiring practical laws for community living.

4. God's Law
The divine instructions given to the Israelites to maintain holiness and order.

5. Camp of Israel
The temporary dwelling place of the Israelites, where cleanliness and holiness are emphasized.
Teaching Points
Holiness and Cleanliness
God's instructions for cleanliness reflect His desire for His people to be holy and set apart. This principle extends to our spiritual lives, where we are called to maintain purity and holiness.

Practical Obedience
The command to cover excrement is a practical application of obedience to God's law. It reminds us that our faith should be evident in our daily actions and decisions.

Respect for Community
This law underscores the importance of considering the well-being of the community. As believers, we are called to act in ways that promote the health and harmony of our spiritual communities.

Order and Discipline
The requirement for orderliness in the camp reflects God's nature of order. In our lives, we should strive to reflect this orderliness in our personal and communal practices.

Symbolism of Sin and Cleansing
Just as physical waste is to be covered, sin in our lives should be confessed and cleansed. This act symbolizes the removal of impurity from our midst.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does the command in Deuteronomy 23:13 reflect God's concern for both physical and spiritual cleanliness among His people?

2. In what ways can we apply the principle of maintaining holiness and cleanliness in our modern-day lives and communities?

3. How does the concept of order and discipline in Deuteronomy 23:13 relate to Paul's teachings in 1 Corinthians 14:40?

4. What are some practical ways we can ensure that our actions reflect respect and consideration for our community, as seen in this passage?

5. How can the symbolism of covering excrement in Deuteronomy 23:13 be related to the New Testament teachings on confession and cleansing from sin?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Leviticus 11
Discusses cleanliness laws, emphasizing the importance of purity and separation from unclean practices.

Numbers 5
Details the removal of unclean individuals from the camp, highlighting the need for holiness.

1 Corinthians 14:40
Encourages doing everything decently and in order, reflecting the orderly nature of God's instructions.

Philippians 2:14-15
Calls believers to live blamelessly, shining as lights in the world, which can be related to maintaining purity and order.
Sermons
A Pure Camp for a Pure KingR.M. Edgar Deuteronomy 23:9-14
Purity in the CampJ. Orr Deuteronomy 23:9-14
People
Aram, Balaam, Beor, Moses
Places
Beth-baal-peor, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Pethor
Topics
Abroad, Amongst, Arms, Cover, Covered, Dig, Digged, Ease, Excrement, Filth, Hast, Hole, Nail, Outside, Paddle, Relieve, Shovel, Sit, Sittest, Sitting, Spade, Staff, Stick, Therewith, Thyself, Tools, Turn, Weapon, Weapons, Wilt
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Deuteronomy 23:13

     5334   health

Deuteronomy 23:9-14

     8269   holiness, separation from worldly

Deuteronomy 23:12-14

     4639   dung and manure

Library
Appendix v. Rabbinic Theology and Literature
1. The Traditional Law. - The brief account given in vol. i. p. 100, of the character and authority claimed for the traditional law may here be supplemented by a chronological arrangement of the Halakhoth in the order of their supposed introduction or promulgation. In the first class, or Halakhoth of Moses from Sinai,' tradition enumerates fifty-five, [6370] which may be thus designated: religio-agrarian, four; [6371] ritual, including questions about clean and unclean,' twenty-three; [6372] concerning …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

That the Employing Of, and Associating with the Malignant Party, According as is Contained in the Public Resolutions, is Sinful and Unlawful.
That The Employing Of, And Associating With The Malignant Party, According As Is Contained In The Public Resolutions, Is Sinful And Unlawful. If there be in the land a malignant party of power and policy, and the exceptions contained in the Act of Levy do comprehend but few of that party, then there need be no more difficulty to prove, that the present public resolutions and proceedings do import an association and conjunction with a malignant party, than to gather a conclusion from clear premises. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Here Then Shall These Persons in their Turn be in Another More Sublime Degree...
28. Here then shall these persons in their turn be in another more sublime degree of righteousness outdone, by them who shall so order themselves, that every day they shall betake them into the fields as unto pasture, and at what time they shall find it, pick up their meal, and having allayed their hunger, return. But plainly, on account of the keepers of the fields, how good were it, if the Lord should deign to bestow wings also, that the servants of God being found in other men's fields should …
St. Augustine—Of the Work of Monks.

Lessons for Worship and for Work
'Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. 2. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth; therefore let thy words be few. 3. For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words. 4. When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for He hath …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Introductory Note to the Works of Origen.
[a.d. 185-230-254.] The reader will remember the rise and rapid development of the great Alexandrian school, and the predominance which was imparted to it by the genius of the illustrious Clement. [1865] But in Origen, his pupil, who succeeded him at the surprising age of eighteen, a new sun was to rise upon its noontide. Truly was Alexandria "the mother and mistress of churches" in the benign sense of a nurse and instructress of Christendom, not its arrogant and usurping imperatrix. The full details …
Origen—Origen De Principiis

Excursus on Usury.
The famous canonist Van Espen defines usury thus: "Usura definitur lucrum ex mutuo exactum aut speratum;" [96] and then goes on to defend the proposition that, "Usury is forbidden by natural, by divine, and by human law. The first is proved thus. Natural law, as far as its first principles are concerned, is contained in the decalogue; but usury is prohibited in the decalogue, inasmuch as theft is prohibited; and this is the opinion of the Master of the Sentences, of St. Bonaventura, of St. Thomas …
Philip Schaff—The Seven Ecumenical Councils

Jesus Defends Disciples who Pluck Grain on the Sabbath.
(Probably While on the Way from Jerusalem to Galilee.) ^A Matt. XII. 1-8; ^B Mark II. 23-28; ^C Luke VI. 1-5. ^b 23 And ^c 1 Now it came to pass ^a 1 At that season ^b that he ^a Jesus went { ^b was going} on the { ^c a} ^b sabbath day through the grainfields; ^a and his disciples were hungry and began ^b as they went, to pluck the ears. ^a and to eat, ^c and his disciples plucked the ears, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. [This lesson fits in chronological order with the last, if the Bethesda …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

That it is not Lawful for the Well Affected Subjects to Concur in Such an Engagement in War, and Associate with the Malignant Party.
That It Is Not Lawful For The Well Affected Subjects To Concur In Such An Engagement In War, And Associate With The Malignant Party. Some convinced of the unlawfulness of the public resolutions and proceedings, in reference to the employing of the malignant party, yet do not find such clearness and satisfaction in their own consciences as to forbid the subjects to concur in this war, and associate with the army so constituted. Therefore it is needful to speak something to this point, That it is …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Canaan
Canaan was the inheritance which the Israelites won for themselves by the sword. Their ancestors had already settled in it in patriarchal days. Abraham "the Hebrew" from Babylonia had bought in it a burying-place near Hebron; Jacob had purchased a field near Shechem, where he could water his flocks from his own spring. It was the "Promised Land" to which the serfs of the Pharaoh in Goshen looked forward when they should again become free men and find a new home for themselves. Canaan had ever been …
Archibald Sayce—Early Israel and the Surrounding Nations

Brief Directions How to Read the Holy Scriptures once Every Year Over, with Ease, Profit, and Reverence.
But forasmuch, that as faith is the soul, so reading and meditating on the word of God, are the parent's of prayer, therefore, before thou prayest in the morning, first read a chapter in the word of God; then meditate awhile with thyself, how many excellent things thou canst remember out of it. As--First, what good counsels or exhortations to good works and to holy life. Secondly, what threatenings of judgments against such and such a sin; and what fearful examples of God's punishment or vengeance …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Commerce
The remarkable change which we have noticed in the views of Jewish authorities, from contempt to almost affectation of manual labour, could certainly not have been arbitrary. But as we fail to discover here any religious motive, we can only account for it on the score of altered political and social circumstances. So long as the people were, at least nominally, independent, and in possession of their own land, constant engagement in a trade would probably mark an inferior social stage, and imply …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life

Nature of Covenanting.
A covenant is a mutual voluntary compact between two parties on given terms or conditions. It may be made between superiors and inferiors, or between equals. The sentiment that a covenant can be made only between parties respectively independent of one another is inconsistent with the testimony of Scripture. Parties to covenants in a great variety of relative circumstances, are there introduced. There, covenant relations among men are represented as obtaining not merely between nation and nation, …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

Scriptures Showing the Sin and Danger of Joining with Wicked and Ungodly Men.
Scriptures Showing The Sin And Danger Of Joining With Wicked And Ungodly Men. When the Lord is punishing such a people against whom he hath a controversy, and a notable controversy, every one that is found shall be thrust through: and every one joined with them shall fall, Isa. xiii. 15. They partake in their judgment, not only because in a common calamity all shares, (as in Ezek. xxi. 3.) but chiefly because joined with and partakers with these whom God is pursuing; even as the strangers that join …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Appeal to the Christian Women of the South
BY A.E. GRIMKE. "Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not within thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place: but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this. And Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer:--and so will I go in unto the king, …
Angelina Emily Grimke—An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South

The Tenth Commandment
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.' Exod 20: 17. THIS commandment forbids covetousness in general, Thou shalt not covet;' and in particular, Thy neighbour's house, thy neighbour's wife, &c. I. It forbids covetousness in general. Thou shalt not covet.' It is lawful to use the world, yea, and to desire so much of it as may keep us from the temptation …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

Deuteronomy
Owing to the comparatively loose nature of the connection between consecutive passages in the legislative section, it is difficult to present an adequate summary of the book of Deuteronomy. In the first section, i.-iv. 40, Moses, after reviewing the recent history of the people, and showing how it reveals Jehovah's love for Israel, earnestly urges upon them the duty of keeping His laws, reminding them of His spirituality and absoluteness. Then follows the appointment, iv. 41-43--here irrelevant (cf. …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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