Deuteronomy 15:20

20 Thou shalt eat those by all years in the sight of thy Lord God, thou, and thine house, in the place which the Lord choose. (Rather, year after year, thou shalt eat them before the Lord thy God, thou, and thy household, or thy family, in the place which the Lord shall choose.)

Deuteronomy 15:20 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 15:20

Thou shalt eat it before the Lord thy God, year by year
Which, if understood of male firstlings, as in connection with the preceding verse, only priests might eat of them, being devoted to the Lord; so Jarchi says, to the priest he speaks; but if this respects the Israelites in common, then they must be understood either of female firstlings or second firstlings, which the people voluntarily separated, and which they were not to eat in their own houses,

but in the place which the Lord shall choose,
which was the city of Jerusalem; see ( Deuteronomy 12:5 ) ,

thou and thy household;
the household of the priest, as Aben Ezra interprets it; but if it designs the same as in ( Deuteronomy 12:17 Deuteronomy 12:18 ) , then the Israelites and their families are meant.

Deuteronomy 15:20 In-Context

18 Thou shalt not turn away from them thine eyes, when thou shalt deliver them free, for by the hire of an hired man they served thee by six years; that thy Lord God bless thee, in all the works which thou doest. (Thou shalt not turn away thine eyes from them, when thou shalt set them free, for they have served thee for six years at half the cost, or at half the wages, of a hired servant; and then the Lord thy God shall bless thee, in all the works which thou doest.)
19 Of the first engendered things that be born in thy droves, and in thy sheep, whatever is of male kind, thou shalt hallow to thy Lord God (Of the first-born of thy herds, and of thy sheep, whatever is male, thou shalt dedicate to the Lord thy God). Thou shalt not work with the first engendered thing of oxen, and thou shalt not shear the first engendered things of sheep.
20 Thou shalt eat those by all years in the sight of thy Lord God, thou, and thine house, in the place which the Lord choose. (Rather, year after year, thou shalt eat them before the Lord thy God, thou, and thy household, or thy family, in the place which the Lord shall choose.)
21 And if it have a wem (But if it hath a blemish, or a fault), either is crooked, either (is) blind, either is foul, either (is) feeble in any part, it shall not be offered to thy Lord God;
22 but thou shalt eat it within the gates of thy city, both a clean man and an unclean (man) shall eat of those in like manner, as of a capret, and of an hart. (but thou shalt eat it within the gates of thy city, both a clean person and an unclean person shall eat it, like they would a gazelle, or a deer.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.