Tafsiran Ulangan 23:3: Rashi, Chizkuni, Ramban & Ibn Ezra

לא יבא ממזר בקהל ה׳ ONE BORN IN INCEST OR ADULTERY SHALL NOT COME INTO THE ASSEMBLY OF THE LORD — i.e. he shall not marry an Israelite woman (Yevamot 78b).

לא יבא ממזר בקהל ה, “a bastard must not marry a Jewish woman;” seeing that he is a product of a union punishable by extinction of its seed, what point is there in such a male impregnating a Jewish woman with his seed?

MAMZEIR’ (BASTARD). The term signifies a man who is muzar (estranged) from his brothers and his friends, for it is not known whence he comes. This is similar to the verse, And a ‘mamzeir’ shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines,²²³Zechariah 9:6. the verse stating that no one will dwell in Ashdod save a foreigner or a stranger who will chance to pass by, for the pride of the Philistines will have been cut off from it [Ashdod]. Now, if a child is born to a man from his father’s wife, he [the father] will put him far away and not acknowledge him because of his shame and disgrace [resulting] from the evil deed that he committed. His mother also will cast him away by night, like the asufi (any cast-off child whose father and mother are unknown) that is mentioned in the Talmud.²²⁴Kiddushin 69a. Thus the mamzeir is “estranged” in his native city, and so also the offspring of any of the forbidden relations as our Rabbis have said in Yerushalmi Kiddushin:²²⁵Yerushalmi Kiddushin III. 14. “Rabbi Abahu said: What is the meaning of mamzeir? Mum zar (a strange blemish”).