Deuteronomy 12:20-24

The Sanctity of Blood

12:20 When the Lord your God extends your borders as he said he would do and you say, “I want to eat meat just as I please,” ¹  you may do so as you wish. ²  12:21 If the place he ³  chooses to locate his name is too far for you, you may slaughter any of your herd and flock he ⁴  has given you just as I have stipulated; you may eat them in your villages ⁵  just as you wish. 12:22 Like you eat the gazelle or ibex, so you may eat these; the ritually impure and pure alike may eat them. 12:23 However, by no means eat the blood, for the blood is life itself ⁶  – you must not eat the life with the meat! 12:24 You must not eat it! You must pour it out on the ground like water.

[12:20]  ¹ tn Heb “for my soul desires to eat meat.”

[12:20]  ² tn Heb “according to all the desire of your soul you may eat meat.”

[12:21]  ³ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 12:5.

[12:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 12:5.

[12:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “gates” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “in your own community.”

[12:23]  ⁵ 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).