But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
Parallel translations
- WEB But flesh with its life, that is, its blood, you shall not eat.
- BSB But you must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it.
- NKJV But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
- NASB But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
- NLT But you must never eat any meat that still has the lifeblood in it.
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
God forbids eating flesh with its lifeblood still in it. Reverence for life, symbolized by the blood, is commanded.
Overview
By prohibiting the eating of blood, God teaches that life belongs to him and is to be treated with reverence. This principle underlies the later sacrificial laws, where blood makes atonement, and it stresses the sacredness of life. Ultimately it points to the precious blood of Christ, shed to give life to his people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Deut 12:23Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood is the life; and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh.
- Deut 12:16Only ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it upon the earth as water.
- Deut 15:23Only thou shalt not eat the blood thereof; thou shalt pour it upon the ground as water.
- Acts 15:20But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
- Lev 7:26Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings.
- Lev 17:10–14And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people.
- Acts 15:29That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.
- Lev 3:17It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood.
- Lev 19:26Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times.
- 1 Sam 14:33–34Then they told Saul, saying, Behold, the people sin against the LORD, in that they eat with the blood. And he said, Ye have transgressed: roll a great stone unto me this day.
- 1 Tim 4:4For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:
- Deut 14:21Ye shall not eat of anything that dieth of itself: thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto an alien: for thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.
- Acts 15:25It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 9:4 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
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