Deuteronomy 12:20

20 "When Yahweh your God enlarges your territory [just] as he has {promised} to you, and you say 'I want to eat [some] meat,' {because you want it}, {whenever you desire} you may eat meat.

Deuteronomy 12:20 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 12:20

When the Lord thy God shall enlarge thy border, as he hath
promised thee
Brought them into the land of Canaan, where they should have large and good pastures for the feeding of their cattle, which they had not in the wilderness, and so a greater increase of them:

and thou shalt say, I will eat flesh;
which they were shorts of, or ate but little of in the wilderness, lest their herds and their flocks should be consumed; but now having room to feed them, and an increase of them, they would give themselves a greater liberty of eating flesh:

because thy soul longeth to eat flesh;
would have a craving appetite unto it, having so long ate none, or very little:

thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after;
of any sort that is clean, and allowed to be eaten, and as much of it as is craved, only intemperance must be guarded against.

Deuteronomy 12:20 In-Context

18 But only {before} Yahweh your God you shall eat it, at the place that Yahweh your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter and your slave and your slave woman and the Levite who [is] in your {towns}, and you must rejoice {before} your God {in all your undertakings}.
19 {Take care} so that you do not neglect the Levite all [of] your days on your land.
20 "When Yahweh your God enlarges your territory [just] as he has {promised} to you, and you say 'I want to eat [some] meat,' {because you want it}, {whenever you desire} you may eat meat.
21 If the place that Yahweh your God will choose to put his name there is [too] far from you, and you slaughter any of your herd and any of your flock that Yahweh has given to you [just] as I have commanded you, then you may eat whenever you desire in your {towns}.
22 Surely [just] as the gazelle and the deer is eaten, so [both] the unclean and the clean together may eat it.

Footnotes 3

  • [a]. Literally "spoken"
  • [b]. Literally "because your soul/inner self desires it"
  • [c]. Literally "at/in all the wanting of your soul/inner self"
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.