Just as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat them; the unclean and the clean alike may eat them.
Parallel translations
- WEB Even as the gazelle and as the deer is eaten, so you shall eat of it. The unclean and the clean may eat of it alike.
- KJV Even as the roebuck and the hart is eaten, so thou shalt eat them: the unclean and the clean shall eat of them alike.
- BSB Indeed, you may eat it as you would eat a gazelle or deer; both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it.
- NASB Just as a gazelle or a deer is eaten, so you may eat it; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it.
- NLT Anyone, whether ceremonially clean or unclean, may eat that meat, just as you do now with gazelle and deer.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Such meat may be eaten as freely as a gazelle or deer, by clean and unclean alike. Common food is not bound by sanctuary restrictions.
Overview
Moses compares this everyday slaughter to eating wild game, which carried no ceremonial requirement. Both ceremonially clean and unclean persons could partake, since this was ordinary nourishment, not sacrifice. The distinction preserves the holiness of the altar while granting freedom at the family table, illustrating God's wise ordering of sacred and common.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 1
- Deut 12:15–16Notwithstanding, you may kill and eat meat within all your gates, after all the desire of your soul, according to Yahweh your God’s blessing which he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle, and as of the deer.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 12:22 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.