Leviticus 3:17

3:17 This is ¹  a perpetual statute throughout your generations ²  in all the places where you live: You must never eat any fat or any blood.’” ³ 

Leviticus 7:27

7:27 Any person who eats any blood – that person will be cut off from his people.’” ⁴ 

Leviticus 19:16

19:16 You must not go about as a slanderer among your people. ⁵  You must not stand idly by when your neighbor’s life is at stake. ⁶  I am the Lord.

¹ tn The words “This is” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied due to requirements of English style.

² tn Heb “for your generations”; NAB “for your descendants”; NLT “for you and all your descendants.”

³ tn Heb “all fat and all blood you must not eat.”

⁴ sn See the note on Lev 7:20.

⁷ tn The term רָכִיל (rakhil) is traditionally rendered “slanderer” here (so NASB, NIV, NRSV; see also J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 304, 316), but the exact meaning is uncertain (see the discussion in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 129). It is sometimes related to I רָכַל (“to go about as a trader [or “merchant”]”; BDB 940 s.v. רָכַל), and taken to refer to cutthroat business dealings, but there may be a II רָכַל, the meaning of which is dubious (HALOT 1237 s.v. II *רכל). Some would render it “to go about as a spy.”

⁸ tn Heb “You shall not stand on the blood of your neighbor.” This part of the verse is also difficult to interpret. The rendering here suggests that one will not allow a neighbor to be victimized, whether in court (cf. v. 15) or in any other situation (see the discussion in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 129).