I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword will devour flesh – the blood of the slaughtered and captured, the chief ¹  of the enemy’s leaders!’”

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

You must offer your burnt offerings, both meat and blood, on the altar of the Lord your God; the blood of your other sacrifices ¹  you must pour out on his ²  altar while you eat the meat.

You must not shed innocent blood ¹  in your land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, for that would make you guilty. ² 

Do not blame ¹  your people Israel whom you redeemed, O Lord, and do not hold them accountable for the bloodshed of an innocent person.” ²  Then atonement will be made for the bloodshed.

However, you must not eat blood – pour it out on the ground like water.

However, you must not eat its blood; you must pour it out on the ground like water.

The elders of his own city must send for him and remove him from there to deliver him over to the blood avenger ¹  to die.

You must not pity him, but purge out the blood of the innocent ¹  from Israel, so that it may go well with you.

Then they must proclaim, “Our hands have not spilled this blood, nor have we ¹  witnessed the crime. ² 

In this manner you will purge out the guilt of innocent blood from among you, for you must do what is right before ¹  the Lord.

‘Cursed is the one who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’

If a matter is too difficult for you to judge – bloodshed, ¹  legal claim, ²  or assault ³  – matters of controversy in your villages ⁴  – you must leave there and go up to the place the Lord your God chooses. ⁵ 

If you build a new house, you must construct a guard rail ¹  around your roof to avoid being culpable ²  in the event someone should fall from it.

Cry out, O nations, with his people, for he will avenge his servants’ blood; he will take vengeance against his enemies, and make atonement for his land and people.

Otherwise the blood avenger will chase after the killer in the heat of his anger, eventually overtake him, ¹  and kill him, ²  though this is not a capital case ³  since he did not hate him at the time of the accident.

butter from the herd and milk from the flock, along with the fat of lambs, rams and goats of Bashan, along with the best of the kernels of wheat; and from the juice of grapes you drank wine.