Deuteronomy 15:20

Summary

The verse instructs that the firstling animal (referenced by the pronominal suffix "it" attached to the verb) is to be eaten annually before Yehovah, at the sanctuary location Yehovah will designate, by the person addressed and his household. The sentence links two acts: eating in Yehovah's presence, and eating at the place Yehovah chooses.

Key words

• liphnei ("before", H6440G) — construct plural noun functioning as a compound preposition, literally "to the faces of," placing the eating act in Yehovah's presence.
• tokhalennu ("you will eat it", H0398) — qal imperfect, second person masculine singular, with the object suffix -nu ("it/him", H9033) attached directly to the verb, so subject, verb, and object are compressed into one word.
• shanah ("a year", H8141) — appears twice, shanah beshanah, literally "a year in a year," an idiomatic repetition expressing recurrence ("year by year").
• yivchar ("he will choose", H0977) — qal imperfect third person masculine singular, describing Yehovah's future selection of the location, using the same verbal aspect (imperfect) as tokhalennu, linking both actions as ongoing/repeated.
• beitekha ("your household", H1004M) — construct noun with second-person suffix -kha ("your", H9021), specifying that the eating obligation extends beyond the addressee to his household.

What the text says

The clause opens with liphnei Yehovah 'eloheikha ("before Yehovah your God", H6440G/H3068G/H0430G), establishing the spatial and cultic framing before the main verb tokhalennu appears. The object suffix on the verb means the animal or item referred to (grammatically "it," masculine) is not named again in this verse — it depends on the preceding context for identification. The repeated noun shanah (H8141) without a numeral or additional connector other than the preposition ve- ("in", H9003) forms the idiom "year in year," indicating a repeated, annual observance rather than a single instance.

The second half of the verse shifts to a relative clause: bammaqom 'asher-yivchar Yehovah ("in the place which Yehovah will choose"). Here Yehovah (H3068G) appears again, but without the appositive 'eloheikha ("your God") found in the first occurrence — the Hebrew simply repeats the bare name. The sentence closes with 'atah uveitekha ("you and your household"), placed in apposition to the implied subject of tokhalennu, clarifying who performs the eating: not only the addressed individual but the entire household.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the second occurrence of Yehovah as "Κύριος ὁ θεός σου" ("the Lord your God"), adding a possessive qualifier absent in the Hebrew, which reads only Yehovah (H3068G) without a suffix at that point. The Vulgate's second occurrence, "Dominus," matches the Hebrew's unadorned form. Additionally, the Hebrew idiom shanah beshanah ("year in year") uses the preposition be- ("in"), while the LXX's "ἐνιαυτὸν ἐξ ἐνιαυτοῦ" uses "ἐξ" ("from"), a different prepositional relationship expressing the same recurring-annual sense.