Keeping The Military Camp Ritually Clean (Deuteronomy 23:9-14).
Having established the purity of the assembly of Israel Moses now moved on to the question of the purity of the military camp of Israel. If they desired Yahweh to be with them in their midst they must preserve the purity of the camp.
Analysis using the words of Moses:
a When you go forth in camp against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every evil thing (Deuteronomy 23:9).
b If there is among you any man, who is not clean by reason of that which chances him by night, then shall he go abroad out of the camp, he shall not come within the camp, but it shall be, when evening comes on, he shall bathe himself in water; and when the sun is down, he shall come within the camp (Deuteronomy 23:10-11).
b You shall have a place also outside the camp, to which you shall go forth abroad, and you shall have a shovel (or peg) among your weapons, and it shall be, when you sit down abroad, you shall dig with it, and shall turn back and cover what comes from you (Deuteronomy 23:12-13).
a For Yahweh your God walks (or ‘marches') in the midst of your camp, to deliver you, and to give up your enemies before you; therefore shall your camp be holy, that He may not see an unclean thing in you, and turn away from you (Deuteronomy 23:14).
Note that in ‘a' they must keep themselves from every evil thing when in their camp, and in the parallel this is because Yahweh walks in the camp. In ‘b' we have described how to treat uncleanness caused by emissions, and in the parallel how to deal with other emissions.
‘ When you (thou) go forth in camp against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every evil thing.'
When proceeding against the enemy it was necessary to keep ritually clean (compare 1 Samuel 21:4-5). The examples given are directly relevant to the camp but the implication is that they should avoid all uncleanness in every way. The general principle having been stated, some of the detail is then spelled out.
‘ If there is among you any man, who is not clean by reason of that which chances him by night, then shall he go abroad out of the camp, he shall not come within the camp, but it shall be, when evening comes on, he shall bathe himself in water; and when the sun is down, he shall come within the camp.'
What ‘chances a man by night' is a euphemism for wet dreams and other discharges (compare Leviticus 15:16). This rendered a man ‘unclean' until the evening. The washing with water was preparatory to the period of waiting which would result in his becoming clean. It was not the water that cleansed but the waiting outside the camp. The water probably removed his earthiness so that he could meet with Yahweh in his period of waiting. Yahweh would be there, for He was not excluded from outside the camp, except in His symbolised presence. This is a military camp. When in the ‘camp of Israel' (that of the whole people, not the military camp) he would wait within his tent, but then he was not sharing it in such close vicinity with others. Soldiers would often be huddled together. It may suggest that the military camp must be kept especially holy.
These discharges might include the soldier ‘wetting himself' or even ‘disgracing himself', whether because he was frightened, or simply out of laziness. Either way he would be given time to think about the matter by his exclusion from the camp. He would be no longer welcome until he was ‘clean'. The following verses would be an indication of what they were really expected to do in such circumstances.
‘ You shall have a place also outside the camp, to which you shall go forth abroad, and you shall have a shovel (or peg) among your weapons, and it shall be, when you sit down abroad, you shall dig with it, and shall turn back and cover what comes from you.'
This might suggest that there was a camp for the soldiers, the official camp, within a wider camp which would include the latrines, both of which would be under guard, but the latter of which would be seen as ‘outside the camp'. Soldiers on active service would not want to be wandering alone away from the camp. The point, however, here is that the soldier who wished to relieve himself should leave the main camp to go to the latrine area, either with a shovel or peg which each soldier probably carried in his pack, or with a shovel kept in a prominent place for general use, dig a hole, relieve himself, and then cover it over. This would keep the main camp holy and would be of great hygienic benefit. It would also emphasise the need to avoid lewd or disgusting behaviour.
‘ For Yahweh your God walks (or ‘marches') in the midst of your camp, to deliver you, and to give up your enemies before you; therefore shall your camp be holy, that he may not see an unclean thing in you, and turn away from you.'
This was necessary because Yahweh their God walked in the midst of their camp. Yahweh was with them (possibly, but not necessarily, indicated by the presence of the Ark). It is an open question whether the Ark was regularly taken into battle. Compare for this Numbers 10:35-36, but there the tabernacle was being taken down; Judges 20:27, where it was in the main camp of Israel in a civil war where Yahweh's law was being defended; 1 Samuel 4:3-9, but that arose from special circumstances of defeat. It is thus a disputed question. But unquestionably He was seen as ‘on the march' with them and as there to deliver them from all their enemies, (compare the same word for ‘march, go before, walk' in Exodus 23:23; Exodus 33:14; Leviticus 26:12). Thus whenever a soldier relieved himself it reminded Him that Yahweh was with them in the camp, for that was why the camp had to be kept holy. No ‘nakedness of a thing' must be found in it, nothing connected with the waste products of the private parts. If they disregarded this demand for the maintenance of the holiness of the camp then Yahweh would turn away from them and they would not be victorious.
There is unquestionably here the requirement that the people of God be clean and hygienic in their habits, even though the reason for it is a religious one.