Leviticus 17:10

Prohibition against Eating Blood

17:10 “‘Any man ¹  from the house of Israel or from the foreigners who reside ²  in their ³  midst who eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats the blood, and I will cut him off from the midst of his people, ⁴ 

Leviticus 17:14

17:14 for the life of all flesh is its blood. ⁵  So I have said to the Israelites: You must not eat the blood of any living thing ⁶  because the life of every living thing is its blood – all who eat it will be cut off. ⁷ 

Leviticus 18:29

18:29 For if anyone does any of these abominations, the persons who do them will be cut off from the midst of their people. ⁸ 

Leviticus 20:3

20:3 I myself will set my face ⁹  against that man and cut him off from the midst of his people, ¹⁰  because he has given some of his children to Molech and thereby defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name. ¹¹ 

Leviticus 20:16

20:16 If a woman approaches any animal to have sexual intercourse with it, ¹²  you must kill the woman, and the animal must be put to death; their blood guilt is on themselves.

Leviticus 20:18

20:18 If a man has sexual intercourse with a menstruating woman and uncovers her nakedness, he has laid bare her fountain of blood and she has exposed the fountain of her blood, so both of them ¹³  must be cut off from the midst of their people.

Genesis 17:14

17:14 Any uncircumcised male ¹⁴  who has not been circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin will be cut off ¹⁵  from his people – he has failed to carry out my requirement.” ¹⁶ 

Exodus 12:15

12:15 For seven days ¹⁷  you must eat ¹⁸  bread made without yeast. ¹⁹  Surely ²⁰  on the first day you must put away yeast from your houses because anyone who eats bread made with yeast ²¹  from the first day to the seventh day will be cut off ²²  from Israel.

Exodus 12:19

12:19 For seven days ²³  yeast must not be found in your houses, for whoever eats what is made with yeast – that person ²⁴  will be cut off from the community of Israel, whether a foreigner ²⁵  or one born in the land.

Numbers 15:30-31

Deliberate Sin

15:30 “‘But the person ²⁶  who acts defiantly, ²⁷  whether native-born or a resident foreigner, insults ²⁸  the Lord. ²⁹  That person ³⁰  must be cut off ³¹  from among his people. 15:31 Because he has despised ³²  the word of the Lord and has broken ³³  his commandment, that person ³⁴  must be completely cut off. ³⁵  His iniquity will be on him.’” ³⁶ 

[17:10]  ¹ tn Heb “And man, man.” The repetition of the word “man” is distributive, meaning “any (or every) man” (GKC 395-96 §123.c; cf. Lev 15:2).

[17:10]  ² tn Heb “from the sojourner who sojourns.”

[17:10]  ³ tc The LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate have “your” (plural) rather than “their.”

[17:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “I will give my faces against [literally “in”] the soul/person/life [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh, feminine] who eats the blood and I will cut it [i.e., that נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] off from the midst of its people.” The uses of נֶפֶשׁ in this and the following verse are most significant for the use of animal blood in Israel’s sacrificial system. Unfortunately, it is a most difficult word to translate accurately and consistently, and this presents a major problem for the rendering of these verses (see, e.g., G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 244-45). No matter which translation of נֶפֶשׁ one uses here, it is important to see that both man and animal have נֶפֶשׁ and that this נֶפֶשׁ is identified with the blood. See the further remarks on v. 11 below. On the “cutting off” penalty see the note on v. 4 above. In this instance, God takes it on himself to “cut off” the person (i.e., extirpation).

[17:14]  ⁵ 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.”

[17:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “of all flesh” (also later in this verse). See the note on “every living thing” in v. 11.

[17:14]  ⁷ tn For remarks on the “cut off” penalty see the note on v. 4 above.

[18:29]  ⁸ sn Regarding the “cut off” penalty see the note on Lev 7:20.

[20:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “And I, I shall give my faces.”

[20:3]  ¹⁰ sn On the “cut off” penalty see the notes on Lev 7:20 and 17:4.

[20:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “for the sake of defiling my sanctuary and to profane my holy name.”

[20:16]  ¹² tn Heb “to copulate with it” (cf. Lev 20:16).

[20:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “and the two of them.”

[17:14]  ¹⁴ tn The disjunctive clause calls attention to the “uncircumcised male” and what will happen to him.

[17:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “that person will be cut off.” The words “that person” have not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[17:14]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “he has broken my covenant.” The noun בְּרִית (bÿrit) here refers to the obligation required by God in conjunction with the covenantal agreement. For the range of meaning of the term, see the note on the word “requirement” in v. 9.

[12:15]  ¹⁷ tn This expression is an adverbial accusative of time. The feast was to last from the 15th to the 21st of the month.

[12:15]  ¹⁸ tn Or “you will eat.” The statement stresses their obligation – they must eat unleavened bread and avoid all leaven.

[12:15]  ¹⁹ tn The etymology of מַצּוֹת (matsot, “unleavened bread,” i.e., “bread made without yeast”) is uncertain. Suggested connections to known verbs include “to squeeze, press,” “to depart, go out,” “to ransom,” or to an Egyptian word “food, cake, evening meal.” For a more detailed study of “unleavened bread” and related matters such as “yeast” or “leaven,” see A. P. Ross, NIDOTTE 4:448-53.

[12:15]  ²⁰ tn The particle serves to emphasize, not restrict here (B. S. Childs, Exodus [OTL], 183, n. 15).

[12:15]  ²¹ tn Heb “every eater of leavened bread.” The participial phrase stands at the beginning of the clause as a casus pendens, that is, it stands grammatically separate from the sentence. It names a condition, the contingent occurrences of which involve a further consequence (GKC 361 §116.w).

[12:15]  ²² tn The verb וְנִכְרְתָה (vÿnikhrÿtah) is the Niphal perfect with the vav (ו) consecutive; it is a common formula in the Law for divine punishment. Here, in sequence to the idea that someone might eat bread made with yeast, the result would be that “that soul [the verb is feminine] will be cut off.” The verb is the equivalent of the imperfect tense due to the consecutive; a translation with a nuance of the imperfect of possibility (“may be cut off”) fits better perhaps than a specific future. There is the real danger of being cut off, for while the punishment might include excommunication from the community, the greater danger was in the possibility of divine intervention to root out the evildoer (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 94). Gesenius lists this as the use of a perfect with a vav consecutive after a participle (a casus pendens) to introduce the apodosis (GKC 337 §112.mm).

[12:19]  ²³ tn “Seven days” is an adverbial accusative of time (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 12, §56).

[12:19]  ²⁴ tn The term is נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh), often translated “soul.” It refers to the whole person, the soul within the body. The noun is feminine, agreeing with the feminine verb “be cut off.”

[12:19]  ²⁵ tn Or “alien”; or “stranger.”

[15:30]  ²⁶ tn Heb “soul.”

[15:30]  ²⁷ tn The sin is described literally as acting “with a high hand” – בְּיָד רָמָה (bÿyad ramah). The expression means that someone would do something with deliberate defiance, with an arrogance in spite of what the Lord said. It is as if the sinner was about to attack God, or at least lifting his hand against God. The implication of the expression is that it was done in full knowledge of the Law (especially since this contrasts throughout with the sins of ignorance). Blatant defiance of the word of the Lord is dealt with differently. For similar expressions, see Exod 14:8 and Num 33:3.

[15:30]  ²⁸ tn The verb occurs only in the Piel; it means “to blaspheme,” “to revile.”

[15:30]  ²⁹ tn The word order in the Hebrew text places “Yahweh” first for emphasis – it is the Lord such a person insults.

[15:30]  ³⁰ tn Heb “soul.”

[15:30]  ³¹ tn The clause begins with “and” because the verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive. As discussed with Num 9:13, to be cut off could mean excommunication from the community, death by the community, or death by divine intervention.

[15:31]  ³² tn The verb בָּזָה (bazah, “to despise”) means to treat something as worthless, to treat it with contempt, to look down the nose at something as it were.

[15:31]  ³³ tn The verb פָּרַר (parar, “to break”) can mean to nullify, break, or violate a covenant.

[15:31]  ³⁴ tn Heb “soul.”

[15:31]  ³⁵ tn The construction uses the Niphal imperfect with the modifying Niphal infinitive absolute. The infinitive makes the sentence more emphatic. If the imperfect tense is taken as an instruction imperfect, then the infinitive makes the instruction more binding. If it is a simple future, then the future is certain. In either case, there is no exclusion from being cut off.

[15:31]  ³⁶ sn The point is that the person’s iniquity remains with him – he must pay for his sin. The judgment of God in such a case is both appropriate and unavoidable.