You must not eat anything with blood still in it. You must not practice divination or sorcery.
Parallel translations
- WEB “‘You shall not eat any meat with the blood still in it. You shall not use enchantments, nor practice sorcery.
- KJV Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times.
- NKJV ‘You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor shall you practice divination or soothsaying.
- NASB ‘You shall not eat any meat with the blood. You shall not practice divination nor soothsaying.
- NLT “Do not eat meat that has not been drained of its blood. “Do not practice fortune-telling or witchcraft.
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 blood and practicing divination or sorcery. Israel's life and worship must depend on Yahweh alone, not on pagan rituals or occult power.
Overview
Eating blood is repeatedly prohibited because the life is in the blood and atonement belongs to God alone (Lev. 17:11). Enchantments and sorcery were the means by which the nations sought hidden knowledge and power apart from God. Israel was to trust the Lord's revealed word rather than manipulate spiritual forces, pointing forward to Christ, whose shed blood truly atones and who alone holds all authority.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Deut 18:10–14Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, practices divination or conjury, interprets omens, practices sorcery,
- 2 Kgs 17:17They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire and practiced divination and soothsaying. They devoted themselves to doing evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger.
- 2 Chr 33:6He sacrificed his sons in the fire in the Valley of Hinnom. He practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did great evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger.
- 2 Kgs 21:6He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced sorcery and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did great evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger.
- Lev 7:26You must not eat the blood of any bird or animal in any of your dwellings.
- Lev 3:17This is a permanent statute for the generations to come, wherever you live: You must not eat any fat or any blood.”
- Lev 17:10–14If anyone from the house of Israel or a foreigner living among them eats any blood, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from among his people.
- Deut 12:23Only be sure not to eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.
- Jer 10:2This is what the LORD says: “Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by the signs in the heavens, though the nations themselves are terrified by them.
- Mal 3:5“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.
- Exod 8:7But the magicians did the same thing by their magic arts, and they also brought frogs up onto the land of Egypt.
- 1 Sam 15:23For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance is like the wickedness of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has rejected you as king.”
- Dan 2:10The astrologers answered the king, “No one on earth can do what the king requests! No king, however great and powerful, has ever asked anything like this of any magician, enchanter, or astrologer.
- Exod 7:11But Pharaoh called the wise men and sorcerers and magicians of Egypt, and they also did the same things by their magic arts.
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Christ at the center
Every sacrifice, every priest, and every day of atonement points beyond itself to the one perfect offering and the great High Priest who, by his own blood, makes the unclean holy once for all.
How Leviticus 19:26 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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