Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 15:22
Eat it within your gates; both the ceremonially unclean and clean may eat it as they would a gazelle or a deer.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses the Israelites regarding the handling of firstborn animals with defects that cannot be offered as sacrifices. The instruction applies to the community's daily consumption practices before entering the promised land.
The words — The term יַחְדָּ֔ו (yach.Dav) means "alike," and הַ/טָּמֵ֤א (ha./ta.Me') means "the unclean." The text states that clean and unclean persons eat the meat together without ritual distinction.
The thread — Deuteronomy 12:15 and Deuteronomy 12:21 establish the broader permission to slaughter and eat meat within any Israelite gate. Deuteronomy 15:23 immediately follows by prohibiting the consumption of the animal's blood.
Why it lands — The verse removes ritual purity as a barrier to eating meat from non-sacrificial animals. It requires the reader to separate ceremonial status from ordinary food consumption.
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
Thou shalt eat it within thy gates: the unclean and the clean person shall eat it alike, as the roebuck, and as the hart.
Cross-references
- 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,
- Deuteronomy 12:21 If the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His Name is too far from you, then you may slaughter any of the herd or flock He has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat it within your gates whenever you want.