Do Not Seek the Welfare of Nations That Sought Your Harm

Ammon and Moab — Kinsmen Who Chose Hostility

Deuteronomy 23:4–7 names Ammon and Moab and gives the grounds for their permanent exclusion from Israel's congregation: they “did not meet you with bread and water in the way, when you came forth out of Egypt” and “hired against you Balaam the son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.” These were nations with a specific history of hostile choices at Israel's most vulnerable moment. The commandment “lo tidrosh shelomam v'tovotam” (do not seek their peace or their prosperity) flows directly from this history: nations that actively worked against Israel during the Exodus cannot be treated as neutral third parties.

The kinship makes the betrayal more stark. Ammon and Moab descended from Lot, Abraham's nephew (Genesis 19:36–38). Israel was commanded not to provoke Ammon (Deuteronomy 2:19) or Moab (Deuteronomy 2:9) because of this kinship, and was to pass through their territory without conflict. In return, the nations refused hospitality and then hired a prophet to curse Israel from a distance. The refusal of bread and water to wanderers in the wilderness, combined with the attempt at prophetic cursing, established a pattern of chosen hostility that defined these nations' relationship to Israel.

The Balaam Episode — Hostility Through Spiritual Warfare

Numbers 22–24: Balak, king of Moab, sees Israel in the wilderness and fears them. His response is not military but prophetic: he sends for Balaam to curse Israel. “Come now therefore, curse me this people” (Numbers 22:6). The attempt to curse fails — God turns each curse into a blessing — but the intent is clear. Moab attempted to use spiritual means to destroy Israel when direct confrontation was not available. Deuteronomy 23:5: “but the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loved you.” The divine thwarting of Balaam does not eliminate Moab's culpability — the intent was destruction.

The Balaam episode reveals the stakes of the prohibition. “Seeking their peace” (tidrosh shelomam) after they sought Israel's destruction through prophetic cursing would be treating active enemies as neutral parties. The prohibition maintains clarity about the nature of the relationship — one that Ammon and Moab defined through their choices.

Ruth — Individual Loyalty Within Collective Prohibition

Ruth 1:16–17: “Where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” Ruth the Moabite's declaration of covenant loyalty to Naomi is one of the Torah tradition's most celebrated expressions of personal commitment. Ruth ultimately became the great-grandmother of King David (Ruth 4:17). Her acceptance reveals a distinction between collective prohibition (Ammon and Moab as nations that maintained hostility) and individual conversion. The woman who crossed from Moab to Israel, renouncing her people and their gods, was incorporated into the covenant. The prohibition of Deuteronomy 23:7 targets the relationship with nations that maintain the identity that chose hostility — not individuals who leave that identity behind.