Deuteronomy 12:20

When the LORD your God expands your territory as He has promised, and you crave meat and say, “I want to eat meat,” you may eat it whenever you want.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Moses instructs Israel on dietary regulations as they prepare to settle in Canaan, addressing the practical implications of centralized worship. The passage responds to a future condition where the central sanctuary is geographically distant from the people.

The words — The Hebrew יַרְחִיב (yarChiv) means "he will enlarge," directly paired with גְּבוּלְךָ (gevu lecha) for "your territory." The conjunction כִּי (ki) operates temporally as "when," tying the dietary permission to the fulfillment of that expansion.

The thread — The territorial expansion motif recurs in Deuteronomy 19:8 and Exodus 34:24, where God's promise to enlarge borders precedes similar covenantal provisions. Deuteronomy 11:24 reinforces this sequence by linking foot-treading and land possession to the same divine promise.

Why it lands — The text explicitly permits eating meat without ritual slaughter when the sanctuary is too far away. It requires the reader to accept that practical concessions follow directly from covenant fulfillment rather than independent human negotiation.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

King James Version

When the Lord thy God shall enlarge thy border, as he hath promised thee, and thou shalt say, I will eat flesh, because thy soul longeth to eat flesh; thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after.

Cross-references

Deuteronomy 19:8 And if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as He swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land He promised them,
Deuteronomy 11:24 Every place where the sole of your foot treads will be yours. Your territory will extend from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the Western Sea.
Exodus 34:24 For I will drive out the nations before you and enlarge your borders, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the LORD your God.
Genesis 28:14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and east and north and south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.
1 Chronicles 4:10 And Jabez called out to the God of Israel, “If only You would bless me and enlarge my territory! May Your hand be with me and keep me from harm, so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted the request of Jabez.
Genesis 15:18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land—from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates—
Exodus 23:31 And I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the Euphrates. For I will deliver the inhabitants into your hand, and you will drive them out before you.
Deuteronomy 12:15 But whenever you want, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates, according to the blessing the LORD your God has given you. Both the ceremonially clean and unclean may eat it as they would a gazelle or deer,
Psalms 63:1 A Psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah. O God, You are my God. Earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You. My body yearns for You in a dry and weary land without water.
Psalms 107:9 For He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.