But you must not consume the blood. You must pour it out on the ground like water.
Parallel translations
- WEB Only you shall not eat the blood. You shall pour it out on the earth like water.
- KJV Only ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it upon the earth as water.
- BSB but you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.
- NKJV Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it on the earth like water.
- NASB Only you shall not eat the blood; you are to pour it out on the ground like water.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
They must never eat the blood but pour it out on the ground. Blood is reserved because it represents life.
Overview
Even in ordinary slaughter the blood must be drained and not consumed, a command repeated throughout the law. Blood signifies life and, in sacrifice, atonement, so it is treated as sacred. This reverence for blood points to the precious blood of Christ, poured out to make atonement and give life to his people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Gen 9:4But flesh with its life, that is, its blood, you shall not eat.
- Deut 15:23Only you shall not eat its blood. You shall pour it out on the ground like water.
- Acts 15:29that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality, from which if you keep yourselves, it will be well with you. Farewell.”
- Deut 12:23–24Only be sure that you don’t eat the blood; for the blood is the life. You shall not eat the life with the meat.
- Lev 17:10–13“‘Any man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who live as foreigners among them, who eats any kind of blood, I will set my face against that soul who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people.
- 1 Tim 4:4For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with thanksgiving.
- Lev 7:26–27You shall not eat any blood, whether it is of bird or of animal, in any of your dwellings.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 12:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.