Each year you and your household are to eat it before the LORD your God in the place the LORD will choose.
Parallel translations
- WEB You shall eat it before Yahweh your God year by year in the place which Yahweh shall choose, you and your household.
- KJV Thou shalt eat it before the LORD thy God year by year in the place which the LORD shall choose, thou and thy household.
- NKJV You and your household shall eat it before the Lord your God year by year in the place which the Lord chooses.
- NASB You and your household shall eat it every year before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses.
- NLT Instead, you and your family must eat these animals in the presence of the Lord your God each year at the place he chooses.
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
The firstborn animals were to be eaten yearly before God at his chosen place, with one's household. Consecration to God was joined to joyful fellowship.
Overview
What was dedicated to God became the occasion for a sacred meal eaten in his presence at the central sanctuary. Devotion and celebration went hand in hand, drawing the family into worship. This pattern of communion with God around a sacred meal points forward to the Lord's Supper, where God's people feast in fellowship with their Redeemer.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- Deut 14:23And you are to eat a tenth of your grain, new wine, and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks, in the presence of the LORD your God at the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name, so that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always.
- Deut 12:17Within your gates you must not eat the tithe of your grain or new wine or oil, the firstborn of your herds or flocks, any of the offerings that you have vowed to give, or your freewill offerings or special gifts.
- Deut 12:5–7Instead, you must seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to establish as a dwelling for His Name, and there you must go.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 15:20 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.