Imamat 3:17

3:17 This is ¹  a perpetual statute throughout your generations ²  in all the places where you live: You must never eat any fat or any blood.’” ³ 

Imamat 7:26-27

7:26 And you must not eat any blood of the birds or the domesticated land animals in any of the places where you live. ⁴  7:27 Any person who eats any blood – that person will be cut off from his people.’” ⁵ 

Imamat 17:10-14

Prohibition against Eating Blood

17:10 “‘Any man ⁶  from the house of Israel or from the foreigners who reside ⁷  in their ⁸  midst who eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats the blood, and I will cut him off from the midst of his people, ⁹  17:11 for the life of every living thing ¹⁰  is in the blood. ¹¹  So I myself have assigned it to you ¹²  on the altar to make atonement for your lives, for the blood makes atonement by means of the life. ¹³  17:12 Therefore, I have said to the Israelites: No person among you is to eat blood, ¹⁴  and no resident foreigner who lives among you is to eat blood. ¹⁵ 

17:13 “‘Any man from the Israelites ¹⁶  or from the foreigners who reside ¹⁷  in their ¹⁸  midst who hunts a wild animal ¹⁹  or a bird that may be eaten ²⁰  must pour out its blood and cover it with soil, 17:14 for the life of all flesh is its blood. ²¹  So I have said to the Israelites: You must not eat the blood of any living thing ²²  because the life of every living thing is its blood – all who eat it will be cut off. ²³ 

Imamat 19:26

Blood, Hair, and Body

19:26 “‘You must not eat anything with the blood still in it. ²⁴  You must not practice either divination or soothsaying. ²⁵ 

[3:17]  ¹ tn The words “This is” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied due to requirements of English style.

[3:17]  ² tn Heb “for your generations”; NAB “for your descendants”; NLT “for you and all your descendants.”

[3:17]  ³ tn Heb “all fat and all blood you must not eat.”

[7:26]  ⁴ tn Heb “and any blood you must not eat in any of your dwelling places, to the bird and to the animal.”

[7:27]  ⁵ sn See the note on Lev 7:20.

[17:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “And man, man.” The repetition of the word “man” is distributive, meaning “any (or every) man” (GKC 395-96 §123.c; cf. Lev 15:2).

[17:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “from the sojourner who sojourns.”

[17:10]  ⁸ tc The LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate have “your” (plural) rather than “their.”

[17:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “I will give my faces against [literally “in”] the soul/person/life [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh, feminine] who eats the blood and I will cut it [i.e., that נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] off from the midst of its people.” The uses of נֶפֶשׁ in this and the following verse are most significant for the use of animal blood in Israel’s sacrificial system. Unfortunately, it is a most difficult word to translate accurately and consistently, and this presents a major problem for the rendering of these verses (see, e.g., G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 244-45). No matter which translation of נֶפֶשׁ one uses here, it is important to see that both man and animal have נֶפֶשׁ and that this נֶפֶשׁ is identified with the blood. See the further remarks on v. 11 below. On the “cutting off” penalty see the note on v. 4 above. In this instance, God takes it on himself to “cut off” the person (i.e., extirpation).

[17:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the life of the flesh.” Here “flesh” stands for “every living thing,” that is, all creatures (cf. NIV, NRSV, NLT “every creature”; CEV “every living creature.”

[17:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “for the soul/life (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh) of the flesh, it is in the blood” (cf. the note of v. 10 above and v. 14 below). Although most modern English versions begin a new sentence in v. 11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood” (see, e.g., NJPS, NASB, NIV, NRSV), the כִּי (ki, “for, because”) at the beginning of the verse suggests continuation from v. 10, as the rendering here indicates (see, e.g., NEB, NLT; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 261; and G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 239).

[17:11]  sn This verse is a well-known crux interpretum for blood atonement in the Bible. The close association between the blood and “the soul/life [נֶפֶשׁ] of the flesh [בָּשָׂר, basar]” (v. 11a) begins in Gen 9:2-5 (if not Gen 4:10-11), where the Lord grants man the eating of meat (i.e., the “flesh” of animals) but also issues a warning: “But flesh [בָּשָׂר] with its soul/life [נֶפֶשׁ], [which is] its blood, you shall not eat” (cf. G. J. Wenham, Genesis [WBC], 1:151 and 193). Unfortunately, the difficulty in translating נֶפֶשׁ consistently (see the note on v. 10 above) obscures the close connection between the (human) “person” in v. 10 and “the life” (of animals, 2 times) and “your (human) lives” in v. 11, all of which are renderings of נֶפֶשׁ. The basic logic of the passage is that (a) no נֶפֶשׁ should eat the blood when he eats the בָּשָׂר of an animal (v. 10) because (b) the נֶפֶשׁ of בָּשָׂר is identified with the blood that flows through and permeates it (v. 11a), and (c) the Lord himself has assigned (i.e., limited the use of) animal blood, that is, animal נֶפֶשׁ, to be the instrument or price of making atonement for the נֶפֶשׁ of people (v. 11b). See the detailed remarks and literature cited in R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:693-95, 697-98.

[17:11]  ¹² tn Heb “And I myself have given it to you.”

[17:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “for the blood, it by (בְּ, bet preposition, “in”] the life makes atonement.” The interpretation of the preposition is pivotal here. Some scholars have argued that it is a bet of exchange; that is, “the blood makes atonement in exchange for the life [of the slaughtered animal]” (see R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:694-95, 697 for analysis and criticism of this view). It is more likely that, as in the previous clause (“your lives”), “life/soul” (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh) here refers to the person who makes the offering, not the animal offered. The blood of the animal makes atonement for the person who offers it either “by means of” (instrumental bet) the “life/soul” of the animal, which it symbolizes or embodies (the meaning of the translation given here); or perhaps the blood of the animal functions as “the price” (bet of price) for ransoming the “life/soul” of the person.

[17:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “all/any person from you shall not eat blood.”

[17:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and the sojourner, the one sojourning in your midst, shall not eat blood.”

[17:13]  ¹⁶ tc A few medieval Hebrew mss, Smr, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “from the house of Israel” as in vv. 3, 8, and 10, but the LXX agrees with the MT.

[17:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “from the sojourner who sojourns.”

[17:13]  ¹⁸ tc The LXX, Syriac, Vulgate, and certain mss of Smr have “your” (plural) rather than “their” (cf. v. 10 above).

[17:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “[wild] game of animal.”

[17:13]  ²⁰ tn That is, it must be a clean animal, not an unclean animal (cf. Lev 11).

[17:14]  ²¹ tn Heb “for the life/soul (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh) of all flesh, its blood in its life/soul (נֶפֶשׁ) it is.” The LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate leave out “in its life/soul,” which would naturally yield “for the life of all flesh, its blood it is” (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 261, 263). The present translation is something of an oversimplification, but the meaning is basically the same in any case. Cf. NRSV “For the life of every creature – its blood is its life.”

[17:14]  ²² tn Heb “of all flesh” (also later in this verse). See the note on “every living thing” in v. 11.

[17:14]  ²³ tn For remarks on the “cut off” penalty see the note on v. 4 above.

[19:26]  ²⁴ tn Heb “You shall not eat on the blood.” See the extensive remarks in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 319-20, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 132-33. The LXX has “on the mountains,” suggesting that this is a prohibition against illegitimate places and occasions of worship, not the eating of blood.

[19:26]  ²⁵ tn Heb “You shall not practice divination and you shall not practice soothsaying”; cf. NRSV “practice augury or witchcraft.” For suggestions regarding the practices involved see B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 133, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 320.