Deuteronomy 12:17

Ver. 17. Thou mayest not eat within thy gates— A free dispensation being given them to eat their common food without religious ceremonies, it is here enjoined what they were to eat with such ceremonies. The tithe here means, as in the 2nd verse, the second tithe. As the firstlings of their cattle were to be given to the priests, Numbers 18:15 and of course might not be eaten by the owners, anywhere, interpreters are of opinion, that firstlings here must mean, either 1. Females; for the males only are offered to God: or, 2. Such as, after setting aside their first-born, were then by the owner dedicated to God; for, as the tithe here is to be understood of the second tithe, so may the firstlings be understood in a like sense: or, 3. The word, which we render firstlings, may signify the fattest and best; for it sometimes denotes the most excellent in its kind; as the first-born of death is a very great and incurable disease: Job 18:13 so the poorest of all mortals are called the first-born of the poor; Isaiah 14:30. See Calmet and Le Clerc.