Text -- Leviticus 17:12-16 (NET)

17:12 Therefore, I have said to the Israelites: No person among you is to eat blood, and no resident foreigner who lives among you is to eat blood. 17:13 “‘Any man from the Israelites or from the foreigners who reside in their midst who hunts a wild animal or a bird that may be eaten must pour out its blood and cover it with soil, 17:14 for the life of all flesh is its blood. So I have said to the Israelites: You must not eat the blood of any living thing because the life of every living thing is its blood– all who eat it will be cut off.

Regulations for Eating Carcasses

17:15 “‘Any person who eats an animal that has died of natural causes or an animal torn by beasts, whether a native citizen or a foreigner, must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening; then he becomes clean. 17:16 But if he does not wash his clothes and does not bathe his body, he will bear his punishment for iniquity.’”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Lev 17:12

¹ tn Heb “all/any person from you shall not eat blood.”

² tn Heb “and the sojourner, the one sojourning in your midst, shall not eat blood.”

NET Notes: Lev 17:13

¹ tc A few medieval Hebrew mss, Smr, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “from the house of Israel” as in vv. 3, 8, and 10, but the LXX agrees with the MT.

² tn Heb “from the sojourner who sojourns.”

³ tc The LXX, Syriac, Vulgate, and certain mss of Smr have “your” (plural) rather than “their” (cf. v. 10 above).

⁴ tn Heb “[wild] game of animal.”

⁵ tn That is, it must be a clean animal, not an unclean animal (cf. Lev 11).

NET Notes: Lev 17:14

¹ tn Heb “for the life/soul (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh) of all flesh, its blood in its life/soul (נֶפֶשׁ) it is.” The LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate leave out “in its life/soul,” which would naturally yield “for the life of all flesh, its blood it is” (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 261, 263). The present translation is something of an oversimplification, but the meaning is basically the same in any case. Cf. NRSV “For the life of every creature – its blood is its life.”

² tn Heb “of all flesh” (also later in this verse). See the note on “every living thing” in v. 11.

³ tn For remarks on the “cut off” penalty see the note on v. 4 above.

NET Notes: Lev 17:15

¹ tn Heb “And any soul” (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh).

² tn Heb “carcass,” referring to the carcass of an animal that has died on its own, not the carcass of an animal slaughtered for sacrifice or killed by wild beasts. This has been clarified in the translation by supplying the phrase “of natural causes”; cf. NAB “that died of itself”; TEV “that has died a natural death.”

³ tn Heb “in the native or in the sojourner.”

NET Notes: Lev 17:16

¹ tn The words “his clothes” are not in the Hebrew text, but are repeated in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “and he shall bear his iniquity.” The rendering “bear the punishment for the iniquity” reflects the use of the word “iniquity” to refer to the punishment for iniquity. This is sometimes referred to as the consequential use of the term (cf. Lev 5:17; 7:18; 10:17; etc.).

sn For the interpretation of this verse reflected in the present translation, see the remarks on Lev 5:1 in J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:292-97.