• An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the congregation of the Lord, even to the tenth generation, etc. (Deut. xxiii. 4). One day Yehuda, an Ammonite prophet, came into the academy and asked, " May I enter the congregation (if I marry a Jewess)? Rabban Gamliel said unto him, " Thou art not at liberty to do so; but Rabbi Joshua interposed and maintained, " He is at libert3r to do so.w Then Rabban Gamliel appealed to Scripture, which saith, An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord, even to the tenth generation.
To this Rabbi Joshua retorted and asked, "Are then these nations still in their own native places? Did not Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, transplant the nations? as it is said (Isa. x. 13), (I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and have put down the valor of the inhabitants. Rabban Gamliel replied, "Scripture saith (Jer. xlix. 6), ( Afterward I will bring again the captivity of the children of Ammon/ and so,* he argued, "they must have already returned."
Rabbi Joshua then promptly rejoined, "Scripture saith (Jer. xxx. 3), (I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah,* and these have not returned yet.M And on this reasoning the proselyte was permitted to enter the congregation. Yadayim, chap. 4, mish. 4.