Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times.
Parallel translations
- WEB “‘You shall not eat any meat with the blood still in it. You shall not use enchantments, nor practice sorcery.
- BSB You must not eat anything with blood still in it. You must not practice divination or sorcery.
- ESV “You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. You shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes.
- 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 quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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 18:10–14There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.
- 2 Kgs 17:17And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
- 2 Chr 33:6And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
- 2 Kgs 21:6And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
- Lev 7:26Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings.
- Lev 3:17It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood.
- 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.
- 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.
- Jer 10:2Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
- Mal 3:5And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.
- Exod 8:7And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.
- 1 Sam 15:23For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.
- Dan 2:10The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, There is not a man upon the earth that can shew the king’s matter: therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked such things at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean.
- Exod 7:11Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.
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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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