“Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”

Isaac loved Esau because he had a taste for fresh game, ¹  but Rebekah loved ²  Jacob.

For I tell you, not one of those individuals ¹  who were invited ²  will taste my banquet!’” ³ 

Can food that is tasteless ¹  be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white ²  of an egg?

Taste ¹  and see that the Lord is good! How blessed ²  is the one ³  who takes shelter in him! ⁴ 

Eat honey, ¹  my child, for it is good, and honey from the honeycomb is sweet to your taste.

So Saul said to Jonathan, “Tell me what you have done.” Jonathan told him, “I used the end of the staff that was in my hand to taste a little honey. I must die!” ¹ 

Then all the people came and encouraged David to eat food while it was still day. But David took an oath saying, “God will punish me severely ¹  if I taste bread or anything whatsoever before the sun sets!”

The Beloved about Her Lover: Like ¹  an apple tree ²  among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. I delight ³  to sit ⁴  in his shade, ⁵  and his fruit ⁶  is sweet ⁷  to my taste. ⁸ 

He issued a proclamation and said, ¹  “In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles: No human or animal, cattle or sheep, is to taste anything; they must not eat and they must not drink water.

So ¹  I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it, and it did taste ²  as sweet as honey in my mouth, but ³  when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter.

I am presently eighty years old. Am I able to discern good and bad? Can I ¹  taste what I eat and drink? Am I still able to hear the voices of male and female singers? Why should I ²  continue to be a burden to my lord the king?