Deuteronomy 12:22
אַךְ כַּאֲשֶׁר יֵאָכֵל אֶֽת־הַצְּבִי וְאֶת־הָאַיָּל כֵּן תֹּאכְלֶנּוּ הַטָּמֵא וְהַטָּהוֹר יַחְדָּו יֹאכְלֶֽנּוּ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
אַ֗ךְ כַּאֲשֶׁ֨ר יֵאָכֵ֤ל אֶֽת־הַצְּבִי֙ וְאֶת־הָ֣אַיָּ֔ל כֵּ֖ן תֹּאכְלֶ֑נּוּ הַטָּמֵא֙ וְהַטָּה֔וֹר יַחְדָּ֖ו יֹאכְלֶֽנּוּ׃
ὡς ἔσθεται ἡ δορκὰς καὶ ἡ ἔλαφος, οὕτως φάγῃ αὐτό· ὁ ἀκάθαρτος ἐν σοὶ καὶ ὁ καθαρὸς ὡσαύτως ἔδεται.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Sicut comeditur caprea et cervus, ita vesceris eis: et mundus et immundus in commune vescentur.
Así como se come la gacela y el venado, así comerás tú. El impuro y el limpio podrán comer de ella por igual.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Lo mismo que se come el corzo y el ciervo, así las comerás: el inmundo y el limpio comerán también de ellas.
Indeed, you may eat it as you would eat a gazelle or deer; both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Deuteronomy 12:22 states that the meat in question may be eaten in the same manner as gazelle or deer meat — that is, without the restrictions of sacrificial consumption — and specifies that both ritually unclean and clean persons may eat it together.
Key words
- 'Akh ("surely", H0389) — an emphatic adverb opening the verse, marking a comparison or affirmation about the following statement.
- yye'akhel ("it is eaten", H0398) — niphal imperfect, passive form describing how gazelle/deer meat is generally eaten (without cultic restriction), setting the standard for comparison.
- ken ("so", H3651C) — correlative adverb pairing with ka'asher ("as", H0834D) to form the "just as... so..." construction that structures the comparison.
- ha-tame' ("the unclean", H2931) and ha-tahor ("the clean", H2889) — paired adjectives with definite articles, referring to persons in a state of ritual impurity or purity.
- yachdav ("alike/together", H3162B) — adverb emphasizing that both categories of persons eat "together" or "in the same way," reinforcing the lack of distinction in this specific eating context.
What the text says
The verse is built on a correlative comparative structure: ka'asher... ken ("just as... so"), which frames the entire sentence as an analogy. The comparison uses yye'akhel (H0398, niphal imperfect) — a passive verb describing how gazelle and deer are customarily eaten — as the reference point, and then applies this same standard to the meat under discussion using tokhelennu ("you will eat it", H0398, qal imperfect with 3ms suffix). The shift from niphal (passive, describing general practice) to qal (active, addressing "you" directly) marks a movement from general custom to direct instruction.
The second half of the verse introduces the tame' ("unclean", H2931) and tahor ("clean", H2889) — both masculine singular adjectives with definite articles, referring to states of ritual purity in persons, not to animal classifications. The adverb yachdav ("alike", H3162B) stresses that these two categories of persons may consume the meat under identical conditions, using the same verb yo'khelennu ("he will eat it", H0398, qal imperfect with 3ms suffix) that echoes the previous clause.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders ha-tame' as ὁ ἀκάθαρτος ἐν σοὶ ("the unclean among you"), adding the phrase "among you" (ἐν σοὶ) not present in the Hebrew text. The Vulgate uses "in commune" ("in common/together") to render yachdav ("alike", H3162B), conveying the same sense of joint consumption but with a different lexical choice than the Hebrew adverb. The BSB adds the qualifier "ceremonially" before "unclean," a clarifying gloss not explicit in the Hebrew tame' (H2931) itself.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.