◄ Deuteronomy 23:12 ►
You must have a place outside the camp to go and relieve yourself.
Study Bible
You must have
This phrase indicates a command, not a suggestion. The Hebrew root here is "עָשָׂה" (asah), which means to do, make, or accomplish. It emphasizes the necessity and intentionality behind the action. In the context of ancient Israel, this command reflects God's concern for order and discipline among His people. It underscores the importance of obedience to divine instructions, which is a recurring theme throughout Deuteronomy.

a place outside the camp
The Hebrew word for "place" is "מָקוֹם" (maqom), which signifies a specific, designated area. The instruction to have this place "outside the camp" is significant in maintaining the purity and sanctity of the camp where God's presence dwelt. Historically, the camp of Israel was a temporary dwelling as they journeyed through the wilderness, and maintaining cleanliness was crucial for both health and spiritual reasons. This separation of the camp from unclean activities symbolizes the call for holiness and separation from sin.

to go and relieve yourself
The phrase "relieve yourself" is a polite translation of the Hebrew "יָצָא" (yatsa), meaning to go out or exit, and "שָׁב" (shav), meaning to turn or return. This reflects the practical aspect of daily life and God's provision for the physical needs of His people. In a broader spiritual sense, it can be seen as a metaphor for the need to remove impurities from one's life, aligning with the biblical theme of repentance and cleansing. The act of going outside the camp to relieve oneself is a reminder of the need to address and remove sin from our lives, ensuring that we remain in a state of purity before God.

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

2. Israelites
The people receiving the law, who are in the wilderness preparing to enter the Promised Land.

3. The Camp
Refers to the encampment of the Israelites during their journey through the wilderness.

4. God's Presence
The camp is considered holy because God dwells among His people, necessitating cleanliness and order.
Teaching Points
Holiness and Cleanliness
The command to have a designated place for relieving oneself underscores the importance of maintaining cleanliness in the camp, which is symbolic of spiritual purity.

Respect for God's Presence
The Israelites were to respect the holiness of the camp because God dwelt among them. This teaches us to honor God's presence in our lives by maintaining spiritual and physical cleanliness.

Practical Obedience
This verse illustrates that obedience to God includes practical aspects of daily life. Our faith should be evident in how we conduct ourselves in all areas, including those that seem mundane.

Community Responsibility
The instruction to keep the camp clean was a communal responsibility, reminding us that our actions affect the community of believers and the testimony of the church.

Symbolism of Separation
The act of going outside the camp symbolizes the need to separate ourselves from sin and impurity, aligning with the New Testament call to live distinct and holy lives.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does the command in Deuteronomy 23:12 reflect the broader biblical theme of holiness?

2. In what ways can we apply the principle of maintaining cleanliness and order in our spiritual lives today?

3. How does the concept of God's presence in the Israelite camp relate to the New Testament teaching of the Holy Spirit dwelling within believers?

4. What are some practical steps we can take to ensure that our actions contribute to the holiness and purity of our Christian community?

5. How does the instruction to go outside the camp to relieve oneself serve as a metaphor for dealing with sin in our lives?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Leviticus 11
Discusses laws of cleanliness, emphasizing the importance of purity and holiness in the presence of God.

Numbers 5
Details the removal of unclean persons from the camp, highlighting the need for maintaining a holy environment.

1 Corinthians 6
Paul speaks about the body as a temple of the Holy Spirit, drawing a parallel to the need for spiritual cleanliness.

Hebrews 12
Encourages believers to pursue holiness, without which no one will see the Lord, connecting to the theme of purity in God's presence.
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, Camp, Forth, Hast, Outside, Relieve, Station, Tent-circle, Thither, Whither
Dictionary of Bible Themes
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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