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Regulations for Eating Sacrificial and Non-Sacrificial Foods

15 On the other hand, you may slaughter and eat meat as you please when the Lord your God blesses you[a] in all your villages.[b] Both the ritually pure and impure may eat it, whether it is a gazelle or an ibex. 16 However, you must not eat blood—pour it out on the ground like water. 17 You will not be allowed to eat in your villages your tithe of grain, new wine, olive oil, the firstborn of your herd and flock, any votive offerings you have vowed, or your freewill and personal offerings. 18 Only in the presence of the Lord your God may you eat these, in the place he[c] chooses. This applies to you, your son, your daughter, your male and female servants, and the Levites[d] in your villages. In that place you will rejoice before the Lord your God in all the output of your labor.[e] 19 Be careful not to overlook the Levites as long as you live in the land.

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 12:15 tn Heb “only in all the desire of your soul you may sacrifice and eat flesh according to the blessing of the Lord your God which he has given to you.”
  2. Deuteronomy 12:15 tn Heb “gates” (so KJV, NASB; likewise in vv. 17, 18).
  3. Deuteronomy 12:18 tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 12:5.
  4. Deuteronomy 12:18 tn See note at Deut 12:12.
  5. Deuteronomy 12:18 tn Heb “in all the sending forth of your hands.”

15 Notwithstanding, thou mayest kill and eat flesh within all thy gates, after all the desire of thy soul, according to the blessing of Jehovah thy God which he hath given thee: the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, as of the gazelle, and as of the hart. 16 Only ye shall not eat the blood; thou shalt pour it out upon the earth as water. 17 Thou mayest not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy grain, or of thy new wine, or of thine oil, or the firstlings of thy herd or of thy flock, nor any of thy vows which thou vowest, nor thy freewill-offerings, nor the heave-offering of thy hand; 18 but thou shalt eat them before Jehovah thy God in the place which Jehovah thy God shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite that is within thy gates: and thou shalt rejoice before Jehovah thy God in all that thou puttest thy hand unto. 19 Take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest in thy land.

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