Leviticus 3:13-17

3:13 lay his hand on its head, and slaughter it before the Meeting Tent, and the sons of Aaron must splash its blood against the altar’s sides. 3:14 Then he must present from it his offering as a gift to the Lord: the fat which covers the entrails and all the fat on the entrails, ¹  3:15 the two kidneys with the fat on their sinews, and the protruding lobe on the liver (which he is to remove along with the kidneys). ²  3:16 Then the priest must offer them up in smoke on the altar as a food gift for a soothing aroma – all the fat belongs to the Lord. 3:17 This is ³  a perpetual statute throughout your generations ⁴  in all the places where you live: You must never eat any fat or any blood.’” ⁵ 

Leviticus 17:11

17:11 for the life of every living thing ⁶  is in the blood. ⁷  So I myself have assigned it to you ⁸  on the altar to make atonement for your lives, for the blood makes atonement by means of the life. ⁹ 

¹ sn See the note on this phrase in 3:3.

² tn Heb “and the protruding lobe on the liver on the kidneys he shall remove it.”

³ tn The words “This is” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied due to requirements of English style.

⁴ tn Heb “for your generations”; NAB “for your descendants”; NLT “for you and all your descendants.”

⁵ tn Heb “all fat and all blood you must not eat.”

⁶ tn Heb “the life of the flesh.” Here “flesh” stands for “every living thing,” that is, all creatures (cf. NIV, NRSV, NLT “every creature”; CEV “every living creature.”

⁷ tn Heb “for the soul/life (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh) of the flesh, it is in the blood” (cf. the note of v. 10 above and v. 14 below). Although most modern English versions begin a new sentence in v. 11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood” (see, e.g., NJPS, NASB, NIV, NRSV), the כִּי (ki, “for, because”) at the beginning of the verse suggests continuation from v. 10, as the rendering here indicates (see, e.g., NEB, NLT; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 261; and G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 239).

⁸ tn Heb “And I myself have given it to you.”

⁹ tn Heb “for the blood, it by (בְּ, bet preposition, “in”] the life makes atonement.” The interpretation of the preposition is pivotal here. Some scholars have argued that it is a bet of exchange; that is, “the blood makes atonement in exchange for the life [of the slaughtered animal]” (see R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:694-95, 697 for analysis and criticism of this view). It is more likely that, as in the previous clause (“your lives”), “life/soul” (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh) here refers to the person who makes the offering, not the animal offered. The blood of the animal makes atonement for the person who offers it either “by means of” (instrumental bet) the “life/soul” of the animal, which it symbolizes or embodies (the meaning of the translation given here); or perhaps the blood of the animal functions as “the price” (bet of price) for ransoming the “life/soul” of the person.