Deuteronomy 12:23

12:23 However, by no means eat the blood, for the blood is life itself ¹  – you must not eat the life with the meat!

Deuteronomy 12:27

12:27 You must offer your burnt offerings, both meat and blood, on the altar of the Lord your God; the blood of your other sacrifices ²  you must pour out on his ³  altar while you eat the meat.

Deuteronomy 19:10

19:10 You must not shed innocent blood ⁴  in your land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, for that would make you guilty. ⁵ 

Deuteronomy 21:8

21:8 Do not blame ⁶  your people Israel whom you redeemed, O Lord, and do not hold them accountable for the bloodshed of an innocent person.” ⁷  Then atonement will be made for the bloodshed.

¹ sn The blood is life itself. This is a figure of speech (metonymy) in which the cause or means (the blood) stands for the result or effect (life). That is, life depends upon the existence and circulation of blood, a truth known empirically but not scientifically tested and proved until the 17th century a.d. (cf. Lev 17:11).

² sn These other sacrifices would be so-called peace or fellowship offerings whose ritual required a different use of the blood from that of burnt (sin and trespass) offerings (cf. Lev 3; 7:11-14, 19-21).

³ tn Heb “on the altar of the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

³ tn Heb “innocent blood must not be shed.” The Hebrew phrase דָּם נָקִי (dam naqiy) means the blood of a person to whom no culpability or responsibility adheres because what he did was without malice aforethought (HALOT 224 s.v דָּם 4.b).

⁴ tn Heb “and blood will be upon you” (cf. KJV, ASV); NRSV “thereby bringing bloodguilt upon you.”

⁴ tn Heb “Atone for.”

⁵ tn Heb “and do not place innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel.”