What Does Deuteronomy 15:20 Mean in the King James?
Thou shalt eat it before the LORD thy God year by year in the place which the LORD shall choose, thou and thy household.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
What is set apart for God becomes the household’s yearly meal in God’s presence.
THE MEANING
You and your household eat what is set apart in the place the LORD chooses, year after year, before the LORD. The meal returns as shared nourishment in God’s presence. The sacred and the bodily meet at the same table.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The sacred belongs only to a separate offering, while eating is merely ordinary consumption. Here, the set-apart animal becomes a meal eaten before the LORD.
THE ROOT
לִפְנֵי
lifnei
GROWS FROM
פ־נ־ה
to turn or face
The word translated “before” carries the image of being in front of a face. The meal is described as happening in the LORD’s presence, with the household gathered there.
ALSO GROWS
panim: face; presence
פָּנִים
This word makes the face within “before” visible: the meal is before the LORD’s face.
panah: turn; face toward
פָּנָה
The root’s motion of facing gives “before” a sense of presence, not merely position.
תֹּאכֲלֶנּוּ
toʾakhalennu
GROWS FROM
א־כ־ל
to eat or consume
“eat it” in this verse is toʾakhalennu. The same root names the act of eating and the food itself. The verse keeps the set-apart animal in the household’s actual meal, rather than leaving it as an abstract ritual.
ALSO GROWS
maʾakhal: food
מַאֲכָל
The branch names what is eaten, joining the consecrated animal to nourishment.
ʾokhel: one who eats; eater
אֹכֵל
This branch keeps the household present as participants in the meal.
THE PATTERN
God’s presence reaches the table: eating can be part of shared life before God.
And there ye shall eat before the LORD your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the LORD thy God hath blessed thee.And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.THE THREAD
And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.The same Hebrew root, א־כ־ל (ʾ-k-l), meaning “eat” or “consume,” names the meal in both verses. Deuteronomy places the meal before the LORD; Exodus joins eating with seeing God.
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