Rules About Firstborn Animals

¹⁹ Save all the first male animals born to your herds and flocks [Ex. 13:2, 11–16; 22:29; Num. 18:15–18]. They are ·for [consecrated to] the Lord your God. Do not work the first calf born to your oxen, and do not cut off the wool from the first lamb born to your sheep. ²⁰ Each year you and your ·family [^Lhouse] are to eat these animals in the presence of the Lord your God, in the place he will choose to be worshiped [^CZion; 12:4–7]. ²¹ If an animal is crippled or blind or has ·something else wrong [some blemish/defect], do not sacrifice it to the Lord your God. ²² But you may eat that animal in your own ·town [^Lgate]. Both clean and unclean people [^Cin a ritual sense] may eat it, as they would eat a gazelle or a deer. ²³ But don’t eat its blood; pour it out on the ground like water [12:24].