You must set apart to the LORD your God every firstborn male produced by your herds and flocks. You are not to put the firstborn of your oxen to work, nor are you to shear the firstborn of your flock. Each year you and your household are to eat it before the LORD your God in the place the LORD will choose. But if an animal has a defect, is lame or blind, or has any serious flaw, you must not sacrifice it to the LORD your God. Eat it within your gates; both the ceremonially unclean and clean may eat it as they would a gazelle or a deer. But you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.
You must not hold back offerings from your granaries or vats. You are to give Me the firstborn of your sons. You shall do likewise with your cattle and your sheep. Let them stay with their mothers for seven days, but on the eighth day you are to give them to Me.
Significance
Exodus 22:29-30 commands offering firstborn sons and livestock to the LORD, with animals remaining with their mothers seven days before presentation on the eighth day. Deuteronomy 15:19-23 expands the firstborn animal legislation significantly: firstborn animals must not be worked or shorn, they are eaten at the centralized sanctuary, and blemished firstborn may be eaten at home like ordinary meat but without blood consumption (Deut 15:23). This development addresses practical questions left open by the Exodus command—what happens to a lame or blind firstborn?—while connecting firstborn presentation to the centralization of worship at the chosen place.
