Deuteronomy 23:15

Study note

Setting — Moses addresses the Israelite assembly on the plains of Moab, immediately following instructions on maintaining a holy camp and preceding regulations for the refugee’s residence. The command functions as a boundary marker for the community entering the land.

The words — תַסְגִּיר (tas.Gir) translates “you will deliver up,” contrasted with יִנָּצֵ֥ל (yi.na.Tzel), “he will deliver himself” or take refuge. The Hebrew syntax constructs a direct prohibition against surrendering a person who has voluntarily fled to the community.

The thread — The prohibition against surrendering fugitives appears in 1 Samuel 30:15, where an oath restricts harming a guide, and in Obadiah 1:14, which forbids standing at crossroads to cut off or deliver survivors. Both passages extend the same boundary against betraying those seeking asylum.

Why it lands — The text commands the community to grant asylum and refuse to return the refugee to his original master. It requires a concrete legal boundary that halts oppression and protects the vulnerable from being handed back to those they fled.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.