Does God reject the children of sinful parents (23:2)?
Some suggest this means God rejected illegitimate children born out of wedlock. Others say a “forbidden marriage” probably was an incestuous affair or a sexual liaison with a cult prostitute in pagan worship. However, excluding descendants for the fault of their ancestors seems extreme, and some see this as a figure of speech (hyperbole) to portray the severity of this sin. The same penalty on the Moabites (v. 3), for example, did not prevent Ruth from becoming a proselyte and an ancestor in the Messiah’s family tree (Ruth 1:16; 4:17).
