What Does Deuteronomy 12:15 Mean?
Nevertheless you may slaughter and eat flesh in all your gates, whatever your living soul craves, 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 roebuck and as of the hart.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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.THE KEY
The word behind “lusteth” names desire, and the verse places that appetite within the living soul while allowing both clean and unclean to eat.
THE MEANING
The living soul’s desire for food has room here: both the clean and the unclean may eat the flesh, like the deer and gazelle. A person’s ritual condition does not cancel access to this ordinary nourishment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that ordinary food is available only to the ritually clean dissolves here: both clean and unclean may eat.
THE ROOT
אַוַּת
avat
GROWS FROM
אוה
ʾ-w-h
To desire, long for, or crave.
“craves” in this verse is avat. The word behind “lusteth” is desire or longing, which can name ordinary appetite as well as craving. Joined to nefesh, it locates desire within the living person.
ALSO GROWS
ta’avah: Desire, longing, or appetite.
תַּאֲוָה
This noun makes the appetite in the verse legible as desire, without making desire itself a sign of impurity.
hit’avvah: To crave or long for.
הִתְאַוָּה
The same root describes a desire arising within someone, the kind of longing the verse permits to meet food.
נַפְשְׁךָ
nafshekha
GROWS FROM
נפש
n-p-sh
The living self: a person, life, or living being.
English divides nefesh into “soul,” “life,” “person,” and “appetite,” while Hebrew holds these senses together in one living self. Here, desire belongs to that living soul and does not make access to food depend on ritual status.
ALSO GROWS
nefesh: Living soul, person, life, or living creature.
נֶפֶשׁ
In this verse, appetite belongs to the whole living person, not to a separate spiritual part.
naphash: To be refreshed or take rest.
נָפַשׁ
This related verb describes refreshment of the living self, echoing the verse’s concern with ordinary nourishment.
THE PATTERN
Food is presented as provision for living creatures, and receiving it is not made a test of worthiness.
Every creeping thing that lives shall be food for you; as the green grass I have given you all.He makes the grass sprout for the cattle, and the herb for the service of humankind, to bring bread out from the earth.For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be thrown away when it is taken with thanksgiving.THE THREAD
When the LORD your God widens your border, as he has promised you, and you say, "I will eat flesh," because your living soul craves to eat flesh; you may eat flesh, whatever your living soul craves.The same desire root returns in “longeth” and “lusteth,” alongside the same word nefesh for the living soul. Read together, the verses show the living self’s appetite for food being given room.
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