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Giving God the Best

19 You must set apart[a] for the Lord your God every firstborn male born to your herds and flocks. You must not work the firstborn of your bulls or shear the firstborn of your flocks. 20 You and your household must eat them annually before the Lord your God in the place he[b] chooses. 21 If one of them has any kind of blemish—lameness, blindness, or anything else[c]—you may not offer it as a sacrifice to the Lord your God. 22 You may eat it in your villages,[d] whether you are ritually impure or clean,[e] just as you would eat a gazelle or an ibex. 23 However, you must not eat its blood; you must pour it out on the ground like water.

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 15:19 tn Heb “sanctify” (תַּקְדִּישׁ, taqdish), that is, put to use on behalf of the Lord.
  2. Deuteronomy 15:20 tn Heb “the Lord.” The translation uses a pronoun for stylistic reasons. See note on “he” in 15:4.
  3. Deuteronomy 15:21 tn Heb “any evil blemish”; NASB “any (+ other NAB, TEV) serious defect.”
  4. Deuteronomy 15:22 tn Heb “in your gates.”
  5. Deuteronomy 15:22 tc The LXX adds ἐν σοί (en soi, “among you”) to make clear that the antecedent is the people and not the animals. That is, the people, whether ritually purified or not, may eat such defective animals.

The Firstborn of Livestock

19 “Every firstling male born of your herd and flock you shall consecrate to the Lord your God; you shall not do work with your firstling ox nor shear the firstling of your flock.(A) 20 You shall eat it, you together with your household, in the presence of the Lord your God year by year at the place that the Lord will choose.(B) 21 But if it has any defect—any serious defect, such as lameness or blindness—you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God;(C) 22 within your towns you may eat it, the unclean and the clean alike, as you would a gazelle or deer.(D) 23 Its blood, however, you must not eat; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.(E)

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