Please explain Deut. 14:23, regarding the tithing of the produce. Verse 26 looks as tho you could use it for yourself for anything that one would lust after, even to strong drink. C. C. The tithe here spoken of was a second tithe, not the first. From the second tithe the people were to use that which was necessary in their great feast offerings. See also Deut. 12:17, 18. The first tithe, the tithe that was for the Levites, was to be paid yearly. If the people were standing where they ought before God, they would not long for anything that was wrong. The term "lust" in our common version is too strong a term as we use it now. The Revised Version gives the better thought: "And thou shalt bestow the money for whatsoever thy soul desireth, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul asketh of thee; and thou shalt eat there before Jehovah thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou and thy household." With all these things should be taken into consideration the one principle which runs through all the Lord's instruction to His people,—that they should eat and drink to God's glory. We must not take a text of this kind as covering absolutely everything, altho it is broad in its application. We could not understand it as including unclean animals. The first part of the 14th chapter prohibits certain kinds of food. We could not for a moment believe that "whatsoever thy soul asketh of thee" would include any of these prohibited foods. So the wine and the strong drink would be that which would not intoxicate, or lead them to commit sin. The strongest kind of drinks that the children of Israel were acquainted with were remarkably mild as compared with the poison liquids that are sold at the present time.