The Use and Misuse of Blood
17 The Lord told Moses 2 to speak to Aaron, his sons, and all the Israelites and to tell them that this is what the Lord has commanded:
3 If anyone from the house of Israel slaughters a head of cattle or a sheep or a goat in the camp or slaughters it outside the camp 4 without bringing it to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting ⎣to sacrifice it for a burnt offering or fellowship offering to the Lord to be acceptable as a pleasant aroma, and if anyone slaughters it outside the camp and does not bring it to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting⎦[a] to present it as an offering to the Lord at the Dwelling of the Lord, guilt for blood will be charged to that man. He has shed blood. That man will be cut off from the midst of his people. 5 This is so that the Israelites will bring the sacrifices that they have been offering in the open country to the Lord at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, to the priest. They will sacrifice them as fellowship offerings to the Lord 6 so that the priest may splash the blood against the altar of the Lord at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and turn the fat into smoke as a pleasing aroma to the Lord, 7 so that they no longer offer their sacrifices to the goat demons, to which they have been prostituting themselves. This shall be a permanent regulation for them throughout their generations.
8 Tell them that if anyone from the house of Israel or from the aliens who reside among them offers up a burnt offering or a sacrifice 9 and does not bring it into the entrance to the Tent of Meeting to offer it to the Lord, that man will be cut off from his people.
10 If anyone from the house of Israel or from the aliens who reside among them eats any blood, I will set my face against the person who eats the blood, and I will cut him off from among his people. 11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I myself have given it to you to make atonement for your lives upon the altar, because it is the blood that makes atonement by means of the life. 12 Therefore I have said to the Israelites: None of you shall eat blood, nor shall any alien who resides among you eat blood.
13 If any of the Israelites or any alien who resides among them successfully hunts wild game and takes an animal or a bird that may be eaten, he must pour out its blood and cover it with earth. 14 For the life of all flesh is its blood. It is its life. Therefore I have said to the Israelites: You shall not eat the blood from any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood. Whoever eats it will be cut off.
15 If any person, whether native or alien, eats anything that has died naturally or has been torn by wild animals, he shall wash his clothes, bathe in water, and remain unclean until sunset. Then he shall be clean. 16 But if he does not wash his clothes and bathe his body, he shall bear his guilt.
Footnotes
- Leviticus 17:4 The words in half-brackets are not in the Hebrew text but are present in the Greek Old Testament. An accidental omission from the Hebrew text may have occurred as the scribe’s eye jumped from one occurrence of Tent of Meeting to another. The repetitiousness of the longer reading is not uncommon in Leviticus.