Deuteronomy 14:26

Summary

The verse instructs converting money into food and drink of one's choosing — cattle, sheep, wine, strong drink, or whatever else is desired — to be eaten in a communal meal "before Yehovah" together with one's household, accompanied by rejoicing.

Key words

• na.ta.Tah ("you will exchange", H5414G) — qal sequential perfect; continues a narrative chain of instructions, here meaning to convert or lay out the money.
• te.'a.Veh ("it will desire", H0183) — piel imperfect of the verb for craving, intensive stem, agreeing with a feminine subject (the nephesh).
• naf.she.kha ("your appetite/soul", H5315) — feminine singular construct with 2ms suffix; appears twice (verses 9 and 28) governing two different verbs of wanting, forming a doubled expression of personal desire.
• tish.'a.le.kha ("it will ask", H7592) — qal imperfect, parallel to te.'a.Veh, giving a second verb for the same subject nephesh, broadening the range of what may be desired.
• li.f.Nei ("before", H6440G construct) — construct plural of "face," used with Yehovah (H3068) to mark the locative/ceremonial setting of the eating.

What the text says

The sentence is built as a chain of sequential perfects (na.ta.Tah, 'a.Khal.ta, sa.mach.Ta) — "you will exchange... you will eat... you will rejoice" — each continuing the previous action as consequential steps rather than isolated commands. Within this chain, two relative clauses introduced by 'a.Sher ("that/who", H0834A) each end in the phrase nafshekha, once governed by the piel verb te.'a.Veh ("desire") and once by the qal verb tish.'a.le.kha ("ask"). The repetition of nephesh with two different verbs of wanting creates a merism covering the full range of personal appetite, followed by concrete examples: ba.Kar ("cattle", H1241), tzon ("sheep", H6629G), yayin ("wine", H3196), and shekhar ("strong drink", H7941), each introduced by the preposition ba ("in/for the").

The eating ('a.Khal.ta, H0398) is located sham ("there", H8033G) and li.f.Nei Yehovah 'Elohekha ("before Yehovah your God", H6440G + H3068 + H0430G) — a construct phrase literally "to the face of," marking the site as one associated with the deity's presence rather than a mere geographic marker. The final clause, sa.mach.Ta 'a.Tah u.vei.Te.kha ("you will rejoice, you and your household", H8055 + H0859A + H1004M), extends the rejoicing beyond the individual to the bayit ("household", H1004M), a construct noun with pronominal suffix.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (comedes coram Domino Deo tuo, et epulaberis tu et domus tua) closely mirrors the Hebrew structure, rendering li.f.Nei Yehovah as coram Domino and bei.Te.kha as domus tua. The Spanish versions (RV1909, SBLIBRE) and the BSB likewise preserve the sequence of exchange, purchase, eating, and rejoicing. The LXX text supplied for this reference (ὁ Λευείτης ὁ ἐν ταῖς πόλεσίν σου...) does not correspond to the content of the Hebrew verse given here; it addresses the Levite living in the towns, a topic found in the surrounding context rather than in this specific verse's wording.