Deuteronomy 12:15
New International Version
Nevertheless, you may slaughter your animals in any of your towns and eat as much of the meat as you want, as if it were gazelle or deer, according to the blessing the LORD your God gives you. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it.

New Living Translation
“But you may butcher your animals and eat their meat in any town whenever you want. You may freely eat the animals with which the LORD your God blesses you. All of you, whether ceremonially clean or unclean, may eat that meat, just as you now eat gazelle and deer.

English Standard Version
“However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, as much as you desire, according to the blessing of the LORD your God that he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer.

Berean Standard Bible
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,

King James Bible
Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee: the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, as of the roebuck, and as of the hart.

New King James Version
“However, you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, of the gazelle and the deer alike.

New American Standard Bible
“However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates, whatever you desire, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as the gazelle and the deer.

NASB 1995
“However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates, whatever you desire, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and the deer.

NASB 1977
“However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates, whatever you desire, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and the deer.

Legacy Standard Bible
“However, you may sacrifice and eat meat within any of your gates, whatever you desire, according to the blessing of Yahweh your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and the deer.

Amplified Bible
“However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your [city] gates, whatever you wish, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you [as His generous provision for daily life]. The [ceremonially] unclean and the clean may eat it, such as the gazelle and the deer.

Christian Standard Bible
“But whenever you want, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your city gates, according to the blessing the LORD your God has given you. Those who are clean or unclean may eat it, as they would a gazelle or deer,

Holman Christian Standard Bible
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. Those who are clean or unclean may eat it, as they would a gazelle or deer,

American Standard Version
Notwithstanding, thou mayest kill and eat flesh within all thy gates, after all the desire of thy soul, according to the blessing of Jehovah thy God which he hath given thee: the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, as of the gazelle, and as of the hart.

English Revised Version
Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and eat flesh within all thy gates, after all the desire of thy soul, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee: the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, as of the gazelle, and as of the hart.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
In whatever city you live, you may slaughter and eat as much meat as you want from what the LORD your God has blessed you with. Clean and unclean people may eat it as if they were eating a gazelle or a deer.

Good News Translation
"But you are free to kill and eat your animals wherever you live. You may eat as many as the LORD gives you. All of you, whether ritually clean or unclean, may eat them, just as you would eat the meat of deer or antelope.

International Standard Version
"You may slaughter and eat as much meat as you desire, according to the blessing of the LORD your God, when he provides for you in all your cities. Both ritually unqualified and qualified people may eat it as they would gazelle and deer.

Majority Standard Bible
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,

NET Bible
On the other hand, you may slaughter and eat meat as you please when the LORD your God blesses you in all your villages. Both the ritually pure and impure may eat it, whether it is a gazelle or an ibex.

New Heart English Bible
Notwithstanding, you may kill and eat flesh within all your gates, after all the desire of your soul, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which he has given you: the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle, and as of the deer.

Webster's Bible Translation
Notwithstanding, thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatever thy soul desireth, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee: the unclean and the clean may eat of it as of the roebuck, and as of the hart.

World English Bible
Yet 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 the deer.
Literal Translations
Literal Standard Version
Nevertheless, you slaughter anything of the desire of your soul, and have eaten [its] flesh according to the blessing of your God YHWH which He has given to you in all your gates; the unclean and the clean eat it, as [if] the roe and as [if] the deer.

Young's Literal Translation
'Only, with all the desire of thy soul thou dost sacrifice, and hast eaten flesh according to the blessing of Jehovah thy God which He hath given to thee, in all thy gates; the unclean and the clean do eat it, as of the roe, and as of the hart.

Smith's Literal Translation
Only in all the desire of thy soul thou shalt sacrifice and eat flesh according to the blessing of Jehovah thy God which he gave to thee in all thy gates: the unclean and the clean shall eat it, as the roe and as the stag.
Catholic Translations
Douay-Rheims Bible
But if thou desirest to eat, and the eating of flesh delight thee, kill, and eat according to the blessing of the Lord thy God, which he hath given thee, in thy cities: whether it be unclean, that is to say, having blemish or defect: or clean, that is to say, sound and without blemish, such as may be offered, as the roe, and the hart, shalt thou eat it:

Catholic Public Domain Version
So, if you wish to eat, and if the eating of flesh pleases you, then kill and eat according to the blessing of the Lord your God, which he has given to you, in your cities: you may eat it whether it is unclean, that is, having blemish or defect, or whether it is clean, that is, whole and without blemish, of the kind which is permitted to be offered, such as the roe deer and the stag.

New American Bible
However, in any of your communities you may slaughter and eat meat freely, according to the blessing that the LORD, your God, has given you; the unclean as well as the clean may eat it, as they do the gazelle or the deer.

New Revised Standard Version
Yet whenever you desire you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, according to the blessing that the LORD your God has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as they would of gazelle or deer.
Translations from Aramaic
Lamsa Bible
Notwithstanding you may slaughter and eat meat in all your towns, whatever your soul may desire, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which he has given you; the unclean and the clean may be eaten, such as of the gazelle, and as of the hart.

Peshitta Holy Bible Translated
Only in every lust of your soul slaughter and eat the flesh as a blessing that LORD JEHOVAH your God gives to you in all your cities; they may eat the defiled and the clean, like a deer and like a stag.
OT Translations
JPS Tanakh 1917
Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and eat flesh within all thy gates, after all the desire of thy soul, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which He hath given thee; the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, as of the gazelle, and as of the hart.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
But thou shalt kill according to all thy desire, and shalt eat flesh according to the blessing of the Lord thy God, which he has given thee in every city; the unclean that is within thee and the clean shall eat it on equal terms, as the doe or the stag.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
One Place for Worship
14you must offer them only in the place the LORD will choose in one of your tribal territories, and there you shall do all that I command you. 15But 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, 16but you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.…

Cross References
Leviticus 17:3-4
‘Anyone from the house of Israel who slaughters an ox, a lamb, or a goat in the camp or outside of it / instead of bringing it to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting to present it as an offering to the LORD before His tabernacle—that man shall incur bloodguilt. He has shed blood and must be cut off from among his people.

Leviticus 17:13
And if any Israelite or foreigner living among them hunts down a wild animal or bird that may be eaten, he must drain its blood and cover it with dirt.

Deuteronomy 14:26
Then you may spend the money on anything you desire: cattle, sheep, wine, strong drink, or anything you wish. You are to feast there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice with your household.

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.

Genesis 9:3-4
Everything that lives and moves will be food for you; just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you all things. / But you must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it.

Acts 10:13-15
Then a voice said to him: “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” / “No, Lord!” Peter answered. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” / The voice spoke to him a second time: “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

1 Corinthians 10:25-26
Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, / for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.”

Romans 14:14
I am convinced and fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.

1 Timothy 4:3-5
They will prohibit marriage and require abstinence from certain foods that God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. / For every creation of God is good, and nothing that is received with thanksgiving should be rejected, / because it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

Leviticus 11:2-3
“Say to the Israelites, ‘Of all the beasts of the earth, these ones you may eat: / You may eat any animal that has a split hoof completely divided and that chews the cud.

Leviticus 11:9
Of all the creatures that live in the water, whether in the seas or in the streams, you may eat anything with fins and scales.

Leviticus 11:21-22
However, you may eat the following kinds of flying insects that walk on all fours: those having jointed legs above their feet for hopping on the ground. / Of these you may eat any kind of locust, katydid, cricket, or grasshopper.

Leviticus 11:27
All the four-footed animals that walk on their paws are unclean for you; whoever touches their carcasses will be unclean until evening,

Leviticus 11:47
You must distinguish between the unclean and the clean, between animals that may be eaten and those that may not.’”

Deuteronomy 14:4-5
These are the animals that you may eat: The ox, the sheep, the goat, / the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep.


Treasury of Scripture

Notwithstanding you may kill and eat flesh in all your gates, whatever your soul lusts after, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which he has given you: the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, as of the roebuck, and as of the hart.

Whatsoever

Deuteronomy 14:26
And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat there before the LORD thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thine household,

the unclean

Deuteronomy 12:21,22
If the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to put his name there be too far from thee, then thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock, which the LORD hath given thee, as I have commanded thee, and thou shalt eat in thy gates whatsoever thy soul lusteth after…

Deuteronomy 14:5
The hart, and the roebuck, and the fallow deer, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and the chamois.

Deuteronomy 15:22,23
Thou shalt eat it within thy gates: the unclean and the clean person shall eat it alike, as the roebuck, and as the hart…

Jump to Previous
Blessing Clean Desire Desireth Eat Hart However Kill Lusteth Mayest Meat Notwithstanding Roebuck Slaughter Soul Thereof Unclean Whatever Whatsoever Within
Jump to Next
Blessing Clean Desire Desireth Eat Hart However Kill Lusteth Mayest Meat Notwithstanding Roebuck Slaughter Soul Thereof Unclean Whatever Whatsoever Within
Deuteronomy 12
1. Monuments of idolatry to be destroyed
4. The place of God's service to be kept
15. Blood is forbidden
17. Holy things must be eaten in the holy place
19. The Levite is not to be forsaken
20. Blood is again forbidden
26. and holy things must be eaten in the holy place
29. Idolatry is not to be enquired after














But whenever you want
This phrase emphasizes the freedom and personal choice given to the Israelites regarding the consumption of meat. In the Hebrew context, this reflects a shift from the earlier restrictions where sacrifices and consumption were more regulated. The Hebrew word for "want" (אָוָה, 'avah) implies a deep desire or longing, indicating that God acknowledges and permits the natural desires of His people within the boundaries of His law.

you may slaughter and eat meat
The act of slaughtering and eating meat is significant in the ancient Near Eastern context. The Hebrew word for "slaughter" (זָבַח, zavach) often refers to sacrificial offerings, but here it is used in a more general sense, indicating that not all meat consumption is sacrificial. This distinction underscores the allowance for ordinary meals apart from religious rituals, highlighting God's provision for daily life.

within any of your gates
This phrase refers to the towns or cities where the Israelites lived. "Gates" (שַׁעַר, sha'ar) were central to community life, serving as places of gathering and judgment. The permission to eat meat within their gates signifies a decentralization of worship practices, allowing for a more personal and communal expression of faith and daily living.

according to the blessing that the LORD your God has given you
This acknowledges that all provisions, including meat, are blessings from God. The Hebrew word for "blessing" (בְּרָכָה, berakah) conveys a sense of divine favor and abundance. It reminds the Israelites that their sustenance is a direct result of God's grace and generosity, encouraging gratitude and responsible stewardship.

The unclean and the clean may eat it
This phrase indicates inclusivity in the consumption of meat, where both ceremonially clean and unclean individuals can partake. The terms "unclean" (טָמֵא, tamei) and "clean" (טָהוֹר, tahor) are central to Levitical laws, often dictating participation in religious activities. Here, the focus is on the communal and practical aspects of eating, rather than ritual purity, reflecting God's understanding of human needs.

as they would eat gazelle or deer
Gazelle and deer were considered clean animals that could be hunted and eaten without ritual sacrifice. This comparison highlights the ordinary nature of the meal, distinguishing it from sacrificial offerings. It underscores the idea that God's laws are not burdensome but are designed to accommodate the daily lives of His people, allowing them to enjoy His creation responsibly.

(15) Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and eat flesh.--This may very possibly be intended as a slight modification of a law made for the wilderness journey (Leviticus 17:3-4). There the "killing" of an ox, or lamb, or goat is forbidden anywhere except at the door of the tabernacle. The word "kill," though often used sacrificially, cannot be limited to sacrifice in that place, although the animals mentioned are all sacrificial animals. It would seem that the practice of sacrificing those animals elsewhere, very possibly for the sake of the feast which followed, had become so common that it was necessary to forbid the killing of them anywhere but at the door of the tabernacle. But the continuance of this precept in Canaan would stop the eating of flesh altogether. Hence the exception made here.

As of the roebuck, and as of the hart.--The frequent mention of these animals in this connection suggests the idea that the hunting and catching of them may not have been an uncommon thing in the wilderness.



Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
But
רַק֩ (raq)
Adverb
Strong's 7535: But, even, except, howbeit howsoever, at the least, nevertheless

whenever
בְּכָל־ (bə·ḵāl)
Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3605: The whole, all, any, every

you
נַפְשְׁךָ֜ (nap̄·šə·ḵā)
Noun - feminine singular construct | second person masculine singular
Strong's 5315: A soul, living being, life, self, person, desire, passion, appetite, emotion

wish,
אַוַּ֨ת (’aw·waṯ)
Noun - feminine singular construct
Strong's 185: Longing

you may slaughter
תִּזְבַּ֣ח ׀ (tiz·baḥ)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - second person masculine singular
Strong's 2076: To slaughter for sacrifice

and eat
וְאָכַלְתָּ֣ (wə·’ā·ḵal·tā)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - second person masculine singular
Strong's 398: To eat

meat
בָשָׂ֗ר (ḇā·śār)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 1320: Flesh, body, person, the pudenda of a, man

within any
בְּכָל־ (bə·ḵāl)
Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3605: The whole, all, any, every

of your gates,
שְׁעָרֶ֑יךָ (šə·‘ā·re·ḵā)
Noun - masculine plural construct | second person masculine singular
Strong's 8179: An opening, door, gate

according to the blessing
כְּבִרְכַּ֨ת (kə·ḇir·kaṯ)
Preposition-k | Noun - feminine singular construct
Strong's 1293: Benediction, prosperity

the LORD
יְהוָ֧ה (Yah·weh)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3068: LORD -- the proper name of the God of Israel

your God
אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ (’ĕ·lō·he·ḵā)
Noun - masculine plural construct | second person masculine singular
Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative

has given you.
נָֽתַן־ (nā·ṯan-)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 5414: To give, put, set

Those who are clean
וְהַטָּהוֹר֙ (wə·haṭ·ṭā·hō·wr)
Conjunctive waw, Article | Adjective - masculine singular
Strong's 2889: Clean, pure

or unclean
הַטָּמֵ֤א (haṭ·ṭā·mê)
Article | Adjective - masculine singular
Strong's 2931: Unclean

may eat it,
יֹאכְלֶ֔נּוּ (yō·ḵə·len·nū)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person masculine singular | third person masculine singular
Strong's 398: To eat

as they would a gazelle
כַּצְּבִ֖י (kaṣ·ṣə·ḇî)
Preposition-k, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 6643: Splendor, a gazelle

or deer,
וְכָאַיָּֽל׃ (wə·ḵā·’ay·yāl)
Conjunctive waw, Preposition-k, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 354: A hart, stag, deer


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OT Law: Deuteronomy 12:15 Notwithstanding you may kill and eat flesh (Deut. De Du)
Deuteronomy 12:14
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