Leviticus 17:10-16 – Three Arrows Pointing to God’s Grace

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS 11Sept 2016

Review

As I mentioned in my sermon on the first half of Leviticus 17, this chapter marks a turning point in the book of Leviticus from a focus on external worship forms to more internal principles of holiness by which God’s people should live.
And, not surprisingly, the first principles of personal holiness in Leviticus are the same as the first two commandments in Exodus: “You shall have no other gods before me” and “You shall not make any image... and worship it.”
The way that Leviticus 17 puts it is, “Don’t make animal sacrifices to any other god but me.” The problem appears to be – not the killing of an animal per se, but rather – the killing of an animal in relationship to another god besides Yahweh, for they could kill an animal on the hunt.
This is a “lasting statute.” God will never approve of anybody worshipping another god.
Note that this applied to all people of any ethnicity or religious background in Israel. If you were going to live in Israel during Moses’ time, it didn’t matter whether you were a Jew or a Gentile, you were not allowed to worship any God but Yahweh.
An application for us in the church is that believers should hold each other accountable to worshipping God and God alone. I don’t think I developed this application very well in my last sermon, so I want to look a little more in depth at how to put this into practice before moving on to the rest of the chapter. How do you keep people from worshipping idols?

Now, in our culture, we may not feel the temptation to drink blood in honor of a goat-demon, but Jesus pointed out that a preoccupation with material things is just as much a form of idolatry as the libations of primitive cultures. Jesus called materialism “Mammon,” and said, “No one is able to serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and he will love the other, or he will stand behind one and he will despise the other. You are not able to serve God and Mammon. On account of this, I’m telling y’all, stop caring [so much] about your life (What might you eat? and What might you drink?) and about your body (How might you clothe yourselves?). Isn’t life about more than food and the body [more] than clothing? ...for all these things are what the nations are eagerly seeking, and your heavenly Father sees that you are in need of every one of these. But continue seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added onto you.” (Matthew 6:24-33, NAW) If we see a brother or sister or ourselves becoming too preoccupied with material things, we need to help them turn and prioritize the things God has called us to do instead.
And, just as God called Israel in Leviticus 17 to gather at a central location to worship Him – as a measure of accountability against straying into worshipping idols, so today, we must guard against skipping family devotions and against skipping corporate church worship; God designed the church to give accountability to one another to stay true to the “one rule of piety^{^[1]}” laid out in the Bible. Listen, the enemy of our souls finds isolated believers easy targets for deception and ruin.
Rather, “let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Heb. 10:24-25, NASB)
“Considering one another” takes some mental effort. Different Christians seem to have different levels of sensitivity to different sins, so, on the one hand, it takes consideration to cut another Christian slack in a grey area where you struggle with a temptation to sin that they do not struggle with.

For instance, some folks don’t watch any movies at all, while others watch lots of movies.
Some Christians don’t drink alcohol; others do.
Same with dancing: my family asked Grace Baptist Church if we could rent their fellowship hall for a Scottish Country Dance, and discovered that for them, dancing is against the rules.

There are often good reasons why people set boundaries wider than the actual laws of the Bible,

so people who have these more conservative boundaries should not be scoffed at; they should be honored and encouraged in their efforts to fight their temptations to sin.
On the other hand those with more conservative boundaries need to think the best of their more liberal friends.

But if a fellow-Christian crosses a line into something the Bible clearly says is a sin, then it is important to step into their life and call them to repentance. One way to tell if they’ve crossed the line is to notice the overall trends of their life.

Did they merely watch a movie you don’t approve of, or are they consistently watching movies with morally defiling content?
Did they take a larger portion of alcohol than you would approve of, or is their life beginning to be centered around alcohol consumption?
When something starts looking like bona fide idolatry, you should open up a discussion with them on the subject to hold them accountable.

The punishment in Leviticus 17 is also oriented toward accountability in community. In my last sermon, I emphasized one aspect of this punishment, that it was, in effect, handing that person over to God for God to deal with him. But in making that emphasis, I fear I understated the human action which I believe is also required, and that is removal from the community.

The community – whether it be a church or a nation – can kick out someone who does not abide by the covenantal agreements,
and in this case, if the covenantal agreement is to worship only the true God, then in the act of removing an apostate, the community or church can consciously do that as an act of putting that covenant-breaker into God’s hands to deal with, and I pointed out that this is exactly what the Corinthian church did under the instruction of the Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 5.
By removing from membership someone who publicly and repeatedly refuses to worship God alone, that person is removed from the accountability of the church as well, putting them beyond any further discipline the church can do, but it puts the person directly under the hand of God to punish them through the agency of Satan’s torments, or to transform through the agency of His Holy Spirit as He sees fit. So the human action of “cutting off” flows into leaving the person in God’s hands to deal with.

By the way, we can also hold non-Christians accountable to worshipping the only true God by warning them of God’s law and sharing with them God’s plan of salvation. It is not loving to simply tolerate their false religious ideas. If we love them, we won’t want them to go to hell; we will want to introduce them to the love and blessings of Jesus!

Introduction

Now, as I have meditated on this chapter for the last three weeks, what I have realized is that this chapter presents three situations which all point to God’s grace. In each case, the law is stated, then the punishment for breaking the law is stated, and then there is a pointer to God’s grace for lawbreakers.
Martin Luther was famous for breaking down all his sermons into two parts: God’s law and God’s grace, and I believe that’s exactly what this passage calls for. So let’s put on our Lutheran hats and move from the law application of this chapter to look at this chapter through the lens of God’s grace.

EXEGESIS

1. The Intolerance of Sacrifices to Idols Points to God’s Grace

· In verses 3-9, which we studied in the last sermon, we see that the law is to worship only the one true God, and that the penalty for breaking this law is to be “cut off,” but then we come to the statement of God’s grace, “So that Israel may bring their sacrifices... to the Lord... as a soothing aroma.”

· God’s goal with His people is – not to punish them but – to provide a way for them to be reconciled to Him, where He could find it pleasant to be with them rather than offensive. And the means by which God provides for this sweet fellowship between His people and Himself is through the death of a substitute – a sacrifice on His altar.

· Do you see how the flow of thought points to God’s grace? Another living being (a lamb or goat or ox) could be substituted and killed in the sinner’s place, satisfying God’s justice which had decreed that the offender be cut off; once again there could be peace with God.

· This is wonderful good news! We don’t have to die in our sins; there is a path which God has provided out from our guilt – ultimately through the substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross.

2. The Proper Use of Blood Points to God’s Grace

· Now we get to verse 10, the second arrow pointing to God’s Grace: And any man from the house of Israel or from the visitor[s] visiting in their midst who eats any blood, I will therefore set my face against the one who eats the blood, and I will cut that soul away from proximity to its people. (NAW)

· Like the prohibition against making sacrifices anywhere to false gods, the prohibition against drinking blood is also related to preventing pagan idol-worship.^{^[2]}

o “But the practice against which the law is here pointed was an idolatrous rite. The Zabians, or worshippers of the heavenly host, were accustomed, in sacrificing animals, to pour out the blood and eat a part of the flesh at the place where the blood was poured out (and sometimes the blood itself) believing that by means of it, friendship, brotherhood, and familiarity were contracted between the worshippers and the deities. They, moreover, supposed that the blood was very beneficial in obtaining for them a vision of the demon during their sleep, and a revelation of future events. The prohibition against eating blood, viewed in the light of this historic commentary and unconnected with the peculiar terms in which it is expressed, seems to have been leveled against idolatrous practices, as is still further evident from Ezekiel 33:25-26^{^[3]}... It was customary with heathen sportsmen, when they killed any game or venison, to pour out the blood as a libation to the god of the chase. The Israelites, on the contrary, were enjoined, instead of leaving it exposed, to cover it with dust and, by this means, were effectually debarred from all the superstitious uses to which the heathen applied it.” ~JFB

o The regulation concerning the processing of the meat of wild game in v.13 further supports the fact that Leviticus was about prohibiting people from making animal sacrifices to any other god, and not about prohibiting people from killing animals for food. The point here is that they had to treat the blood even of wild animals as special to God.

· The violation of this law against the improper use of blood results in severe punishment: “I [God] will set my face against that man... I will cut him off

· This also goes back to the prohibition against eating blood in Leviticus 3:17. The main reason given in that earlier prohibition was that God is our Owner, so He has the authority to make the rules for us. Here in Leviticus 17, the main reason given has to do with God being our Redeemer.

The Reasoning (verse 11)

· In Hebrew, the word nephesh, translated “soul,” “life,” or “self” appears three times in verse eleven. I think it’s confusing for English translations to use two different English words to translate nephesh within the same verse, though. If you translate it consistently, the repetition of the word nephesh makes three points stand out in v.11:

o First, the nephesh is in the blood,

o Second, God has arranged for atonement for the nephesh (The emphatic subject in Hebrew places the emphasis on the fact it is God who made the arrangement for our atonement.),

o And third, it is blood in the nephesh which makes atonement for the nephesh. (The Hebrew subject “it” is masculine, indicating “blood,” which is masculine in Hebrew.)

· The classic German Bible commentator Franz Delitzsch wrote in his book, Biblical Psychology, “[The statement that the life is in the blood] seems at first sight to be founded upon no other reason, than that a sudden [loss] of the blood is sure to cause death. But this phenomenon rests upon the still deeper ground, that all the activity of the body, especially that of the nervous and muscular systems, is dependent upon the circulation of the blood; for if the flow of blood is stopped from any part of the body... a sensitive part loses all sensation in a very few minutes, and muscular action is entirely suspended... The blood is really the basis of the physical life; and so far the soul, as the vital principle of the body, is pre-eminently in the blood.” (pp. 242-245)

· Now, as for the second two points in verse 11, the Hebrew preposition in the second phrase is “for/over” (על־), which is the usual Hebrew construction for the object of atonement, but the prepositional prefix to the nephesh in the third phrase of v.11 is different, it is a beth, usually translated “in/by/with,” so I think the ASV and RSV and their derivative versions were correct in making the third phrase different: “blood makes atonement by reason of the nephesh.”

o Contemporary commentator Gordon Wenham translated this phrase, “‘[T]he blood ransoms at the price of life.’ In other words, the ransom price for man’s life is not a monetary payment... but the life of an animal represented by its blood splashed over the altar.”

o “God appointed the blood for the altar, as containing the soul of the animal, to be the medium of expiation for the souls of men, and therefore prohibited its being used as food. ‘For the blood it expiates by virtue of the soul’ ... Accordingly, it was not the blood as such, but the blood as the vehicle of the soul, which possessed expiatory virtue; because the animal soul was offered to God upon the altar as a substitute for the human soul.” ~K&D

o “Every living creature depends for its life on its blood. It was, therefore, chosen to expiate the sins of man which would have brought about his death” ~Rashi

· Once again we see the Gospel of substitutionary atonement here in Leviticus – the good news that a person who is offensive to God may be made right with God when God provides the bloody death of a substitute for that person. This is what Jesus did. He is God Himself who came to earth and substituted Himself for us, dying on the cross and rising back to heaven, bringing His blood before the throne of God’s justice to make atonement for us and to cover over our offenses against God.

· That’s what blood is for; it is to represent a living soul, and it is only to be used for atonement, and then only in the proper way of atonement sanctioned by God Himself. Because of the special symbolism and the special use of blood, it was not to be eaten; it would destroy the specialness of its meaning and its proper use for it to become a part of our everyday diet. “For I have given it [blood] on the altar to make atonement for your souls.”

· God used the bloody sacrifices to prophesy of the bloody death of Jesus on the cross to save us, prohibiting the imbibing of the blood of the sacrificial animals in order to encourage us to partake of Christ, and that’s why Jesus told us to drink His blood symbolically when He instituted the Lord’s Supper (John 6:51-57). Life is in the blood of Christ now!

· So these first two laws in Lev. 17 point to God’s grace through the substitutionary atonement of a sacrifice. The third law, starting in verse 15, uses a different symbol to point to God’s grace:

3. The Bearing of Iniquity

15 And every soul who eats a carcass or roadkill – be he native or visitor, he must then wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean until that evening, and then he will be pure. 16 But if he does not wash or bathe his body then he will bear his iniquity.”’”

· A few years ago one of our church members, Pete Mathews, came home late one night after an unsuccessful hunting trip. It was the end of hunting season and he was really disappointed that he had lost his chance to bag a deer, when all of a sudden, he saw a movement off the side of the road as he was coming over Scenic Drive here. He stopped to investigate, and lo and behold, there was a deer which had been recently hit by a car, thrashing around, unable to get back off the ground. So Pete put it out of its misery, put his tag on that deer and brought it home!

· Now, one reason why God’s people avoided eating animals that had died in the wild was probably that this manner of death usually didn’t result in the blood draining out well, so there is some relationship to the previous prohibition against blood.

· But what is curious is how casually this passage treats eating a dead animal found on the side of the road (“Just wash up and you’ll be ceremonially clean again by evening”).

· At first this seems like a strange epilogue, but, as we have seen in previous chapters of Leviticus, God often ends a topic by making a special provision for the poor. And if you look at this epilogue in terms of gracious provision for the poor, it seems to fit. I think the issue here is that if you were desperate enough to eat an animal that you found dead on the side of the road, then you didn’t need to worry about it offending God, the only real concern was hygiene: just be sure to wash the decaying matter and germs off, or you’re going to have worse problems.

· However, here we have what appears to be a contradiction in the Bible:

o Leviticus 16:15 says that if a resident alien eats a dead animal he will be unclean, but Deuteronomy 14:21 says, “...You may give a carcass to the visitor who is within your gates, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a stranger...” (NAW)

o These two statements can be reconciled without a problem by realizing that there were different classes of Gentiles. Some were proselytes; others were just visitors. The proselytes were concerned with ceremonial purity and followed the Jewish food laws. But inasmuch as the Jewish food laws were designed to set apart a people for God and not to be a universal way of salvation for mankind, those who had not bound themselves to all the Jewish ceremonies but who were merely associating with the Jews – perhaps as part of a business trip – these strangers were not condemned for eating roadkill, and Jews could sell it to them.

o This is in keeping with the ancient Septuagint interpretation. The Hebrew text in Leviticus 14 calls these people גֵּר “visitors/sojourners/guests” (it is not the Hebrew word for “foreigner” or “alien”), and the Septuagint translates this word into Greek as προσηλύτων (proselytes). Later on in Deut. 14, however, when it speaks of giving an animal that had died in the wild as food to people who are both “visitors” (גֵּר) and “strangers” (נָכְרִי), the Septuagint translates the same Hebrew word from Leviticus 14 as παροίκῳ (“resident-aliens”) instead of as “proselytes,” because it was a different class of people in view^{^[4]}.

· But how on earth does this tie into the gospel of substitutionary atonement? I’m glad you asked. I see it in the last phrase. The rebellious who refuse to acknowledge even a simple hygienic command from God will “bear his iniquity.”

o What does “bearing iniquity” mean? In other places in the Bible, the meaning is spelled out clearly: bearing iniquity meant being “cut off” from the people of God. For instance:

§ Lev. 19:8 'Everyone who eats it [a sacrificial animal that’d been dead for more than two days] will bear his iniquity, for he has profaned the holy thing of the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from his people. (cf. 20:17),

§ We also saw that phrase early on in Genesis 4:13 after Cain murdered his brother Abel; Cain “bore his iniquity” by being banished from his family.

§ We also see it in God’s punishment upon the covenant-breaking people of Israel: They “bore their iniquity” by not being allowed to enter the Promised Land (Num. 14:34) and later by being exiled from the Promised Land (Isa. 64:6),

§ Ezekiel 18:20 even talks of bearing iniquity in terms of death – being cut off from the land of the living.

o Now, here is how I believe this points to God’s grace:

§ If they don’t wash, they bear their own iniquity, but if they do wash, they don’t bear their own iniquity.

§ Now, God is just and He won’t let any iniquity go unpunished, so to uphold justice somebody still has to bear that iniquity.

§ The implication then is that another soul will bear the iniquity of those who wash.

§ So who would that substitute be?

o The Bible tells us that is that God Himself would be that substitute to bear the iniquity of those who embrace His provision of atonement and sanctification:

§ Exodus 34:6-7 “...Yahweh, God of comfort and grace... maintaining loving kindness to thousands, bearing iniquity and transgression...”

§ Psalm 32:5 “I acknowledged my sin to You... And You Yourself bore the iniquity of my sin...,”

§ Psalm 85:3 “LORD... You bore the iniquity of Your people”

§ Micah 7:18 “Who is a god like you, bearing iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of His inheritance...?” (NAW)

o So how did this substitute “bearing of iniquity” work?

§ We already studied how it worked in Leviticus 5:2-6 “...a person which comes into contact with any unclean thing... he will be guilty [somebody’s going to have to bear that guilt]... Or if a person swears and blurts out with his lips to do harm or to bring good [and he breaks his word]... he is still guilty... he shall confess concerning it what he sinned. And he shall bring his guilt-offering to Yahweh... [a lamb or a goat]. Then the priest will make atonement for him from his sin and it will be pardoned for him.” (NAW)

§ The lamb or goat was the substitute which bore the iniquity, but only for the sinner who looked to the one true God to forgive him and who followed the pattern that God had given for how to be made right.

§ Now, in the New Testament, we see God provide Jesus Christ Himself as the substitute to bear iniquity, but only for those to look to the one true God to forgive them and who follow the pattern of faith in Jesus that God provides for us to be made right.

So How Should We Apply These Three Arrows Pointing To Grace?

· The law of God condemns you so that you have no hope of being guilt-free.

· The cost of bearing your own iniquity is your own death. No amount of good deeds can ever make yourself a better person. No amount of penance you do will ever be enough to atone for a single wrong thing you have done. Trusting in your own goodness or your own good deeds to make you right with God is like offering a sacrifice to an idol because, for one thing, your good deeds are not good enough for God, and for another, God has offered us the good deeds of Jesus as a substitute, and so it is offensive for us to turn down His way of salvation and try to do better than Jesus.

· Embracing the terms of God’s grace is your only hope for a substitute to bear your iniquity so that your sins can be atoned for and God can be pleased with you.

· There is only one sacrifice which will be pleasing to God, and that is Jesus’ perfect life and His death on the cross, so let us joyfully receive the grace of God – not the washing and animal sacrifice and altar of the Levitical era but the antitype to which those types pointed: the blood of Jesus Christ which cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

· Let us trust Jesus to make us right with God. Let us no more see God as the Divine Disapprover whom we imagine looking down from heaven and saying, “He or she is not quite good enough.” Let us more fully trust Jesus to bear our iniquity, to be the substitute who experienced the just penalty for our sin, and to be the sacrifice that pleases God and therefore makes us pleasing to God. God is utterly delighted in you when you trust Jesus to make you right!

· “It is certain that the spiritual sacrifices we are now to offer are not confined to any one place. Our Saviour has made this clear (John 4:21 – “neither at this mountain nor in Jerusalem”), and the apostle (1Tim. 2:8 – “I command all men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer”), according to the prophecy, that “in every place incense should be offered” (Malachi 1:11). We have now no temple nor altar that sanctifies the gift, nor does the gospel unity lie in one place, but in one heart, and the unity of the spirit. Christ is our altar, and the true tabernacle (Hebrews 8:2; 13:10); in him God dwells among us, and it is in him that our sacrifices are acceptable to God, and in him only, (1 Peter 2:5). To set up other mediators, or other altars, or other expiatory sacrifices, is, in effect, to set up other gods. He is the centre of unity, in whom all God's Israel meet.” ~Matthew Henry

The New Testament Truth to which these Arrows Point

· From A. M. Stibbs book, The Meaning of the Word ‘Blood’ In Scripture. “So, first, the greatest offering or service one can render is to give one’s blood or life. (“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13) Second, the greatest earthly crime or evil is to take blood or life, that is, manslaughter or murder. Third, the great penalty or loss is to have one’s blood shed or life taken. So it says of the blood-shedder, “by man shall his blood be shed;” and so Paul says... “The wages of sin is death.” Fourth, the only possible or adequate expiation or atonement is life for life and blood for blood. This expiation man cannot give. Not only is his own life already forfeit as a sinner, but also, all life is God’s. So man has no blood that he can give. This necessary but otherwise unobtainable gift God has given. He has given the blood to make atonement... Here in Jesus, the incarnate Son, was God come in person to give, as Man, the only blood which can make atonement. The church of God is, therefore, purchased with His own blood (Acts 20:28). All these four significances of blood as shed meet in the cross of Christ. There the Son of Man, in our flesh and blood... made the greatest offering. He gave his life. Second, He became the victim of mankind’s greatest crime: He was vilely and unjustly put to death. Third, He was reckoned with transgressors and endured the extreme penalty of the wrongdoer; the hand of the law and of the Roman magistrate put Him to death - ‘By man was His blood shed.’ Fourth, He, as God made flesh, gave, as He alone could do, His human blood to make atonement. ‘Repentance and remission of sins can, therefore, now be preached in His name.’ ‘We are justified by His blood.’” (Stibbs, p. 30ff)

Comparative translations of Leviticus 17:10-16

When a translation adds words not in the Hebrew text, but does not indicate it has done so by the use of italics (or greyed-out text), I put the added words in [square brackets]. When one version chooses a wording which is different from all the other translations, I underline it. When a version chooses a translation which, in my opinion, either departs too far from the root meaning of the Hebrew word or departs too far from the grammar form of the original Hebrew, I use ~~strikeout~~. And when a version omits a word which is in the Hebrew text, I insert an X. (Sometimes I will place the X at the end of a word if the original word is plural but the English translation is singular.) I occasionally use colors to help the reader see correlations between the various editions and versions when there are more than two different translations of a given word. Hebrew text that is colored purple matches the Dead Sea Scrolls, and variants between the DSS and the MT are noted in endnotes with the following exceptions: When a holem or qibbutz pointing in the MT is represented in the DSS by a vav or a hireq pointing in the MT is represented in the DSS by a yod (the corresponding consonantal representation of the same vowel) or when the tetragrammaton is spelled with paleo-Hebrew letters, I did not record it a variant. In Chapter 17, 4Q26 Leviticus^d contains verses 2- 11, and 11Q1 paleoLeviticus^a contains verses 1-5.

LXX	KJV	NAW	MT
10 Καὶ ἄνθρωπος ἄνθρωπος τῶν υἱῶν Ισραηλ ἢ τῶν προσηλύτων τῶν προσκειμένων ἐν ~~ὑμῖν~~, ὃς ἂν φάγῃ πᾶν αἷμα, καὶ ἐπιστήσω τὸ πρόσωπόν μου ἐπὶ τὴν ψυχὴν τὴν ἔσθουσαν τὸ αἷμα καὶ ἀπολῶ αὐτὴν ἐκ X τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτῆς.	10 And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among ~~you~~, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut ~~him~~ off from among ~~his~~ people.	10 Also, any man from the house of Israel or from the visitor[s] visiting in their midst who eats any blood, I will therefore set my face against the one who eats the blood, and I will cut that soul away from proximity to its people.”	10 וְאִישׁ אִישׁ מִבֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל וּמִן-הַגֵּר הַגָּר בְּתוֹכָם אֲשֶׁר יֹאכַל כָּל-דָּם^{^[A]} וְנָתַתִּי פָנַי בַּנֶּפֶשׁ הָאֹכֶלֶת אֶת-הַדָּם וְהִכְרַתִּי אֹתָהּ מִקֶּרֶב עַמָּהּ:
11 ἡ γὰρ ψυχὴ πάσης σαρκὸς αἷμα αὐτοῦ ἐστιν, καὶ ἐγὼ δέδωκα αὐτὸ ὑμῖν ἐπὶ τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου ἐξιλάσκεσθαι περὶ τῶν ψυχῶν ὑμῶν· τὸ γὰρ αἷμα αὐτοῦ ἀντὶ τῆς ψυχῆς ἐξιλάσεται.	11 For the ~~life~~ of the flesh X is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.	11 For it is in the blood that the soul of every body exists, and I myself have given it on behalf of y’all upon the altar to make atonement over your souls, since it is the blood in the soul that makes atonement.	11 כִּי נֶפֶשׁ ^{^[B]}הַבָּשָׂר בַּדָּם הִוא וַאֲנִי נְתַתִּיו^{^[C]} לָכֶם עַל-הַמִּזְבֵּחַ לְכַפֵּר עַל-נַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם כִּי-הַדָּם הוּא בַּנֶּפֶשׁ יְכַפֵּר:
12 διὰ τοῦτο εἴρηκα τοῖς υἱοῖς Ισραηλ Πᾶσα ψυχὴ ἐξ ὑμῶν οὐ φάγεται αἷμα, καὶ ὁ προσήλυτος ὁ προσκείμενος ἐν ὑμῖν οὐ φάγεται αἷμα.	12 Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood.	12 Therefore I have said to the children of Israel, “Every soul among y’all shall not eat blood; also a visitor who is visiting in your midst must not eat blood.	12 עַל-כֵּן אָמַרְתִּי לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל כָּל-נֶפֶשׁ מִכֶּם לֹא-תֹאכַל דָּם וְהַגֵּר הַגָּר בְּתוֹכְכֶם לֹא-יֹאכַל דָּם: ס
13 καὶ ἄνθρωπος ἄνθρωπος τῶν υἱῶν Ισραηλ καὶ τῶν προσηλύτων τῶν προσκειμένων ἐν ~~ὑμῖν~~, ὃς ἂν θηρεύσῃ θήρευμα θηρίον ἢ πετεινόν, ὃ ἔσθεται, καὶ ἐκχεεῖ τὸ αἷμα καὶ καλύψει αὐτὸ τῇ γῇ·	13 And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among ~~you~~, which hunteth [and] catch~~eth~~ [any] beast or fowl that may be eaten; he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust.	13 Furthermore, any man from the children of Israel - or from the visitors who are visiting in their midst - who hunts live game or a bird which may be eaten, must therefore pour out its blood and cover it with dirt,	13 וְאִישׁ אִישׁ מִבְּנֵי^{^[D]} יִשְׂרָאֵל וּמִן-הַגֵּר הַגָּר בְּתוֹכָם אֲשֶׁר יָצוּד צֵיד חַיָּה אוֹ-עוֹף אֲשֶׁר יֵאָכֵל וְשָׁפַךְ אֶת-דָּמוֹ וְכִסָּהוּ בֶּעָפָר:
LXX	KJV	NAW	MT
14 ἡ γὰρ ψυχὴ πάσης σαρκὸς αἷμα αὐτοῦ ἐστιν X X X, καὶ εἶπα τοῖς υἱοῖς Ισραηλ Αἷμα πάσης σαρκὸς οὐ φάγεσθε, ὅτι ἡ ψυχὴ πάσης σαρκὸς αἷμα αὐτοῦ ἐστιν· πᾶς ὁ ἔσθων αὐτὸ ἐξολεθρευθήσεται.	14 For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.	14 because the soul of every body is [represented by] its blood; it is [represented] in its soul, thus I said to the children of Israel, ‘Y’all must not eat the blood of any body, because it represents the soul of every body - its blood.’ Everyone who eats it must be cut away.	14 כִּי-נֶפֶשׁ כָּל-בָּשָׂר דָּמוֹ בְנַפְשׁוֹ הוּא וָאֹמַר^{^[E]} לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל דַּם כָּל-בָּשָׂר לֹא תֹאכֵלוּ כִּי נֶפֶשׁ כָּל-בָּשָׂר דָּמוֹ הִוא כָּל-אֹכְלָיו^{^[F]} יִכָּרֵת:
15 Καὶ πᾶσα ψυχή, ἥτις φάγεται θνησιμαῖον ἢ θηριάλωτον ἐν τοῖς αὐτόχθοσιν ἢ ἐν τοῖς προσηλύτοις, πλυνεῖ τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτοῦ καὶ λούσεται ὕδατι καὶ ἀκάθαρτος ἔσται ἕως X ἑσπέρας καὶ καθαρὸς ἔσται·	15 And every soul that eateth that which died of itself, or that which was torn with beasts, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger, he shall both wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even: then shall he be clean.	15 And every soul who eats a carcass or roadkill – be he native or visitor, he must then wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean until that evening, and then he will be pure.	15 וְכָל-נֶפֶשׁ אֲשֶׁר תֹּאכַל נְבֵלָה וּטְרֵפָה בָּאֶזְרָח וּבַגֵּר וְכִבֶּס בְּגָדָיו וְרָחַץ בַּמַּיִם וְטָמֵא עַד-הָעֶרֶב וְטָהֵר^{^[G]}:
16 ἐὰν δὲ μὴ πλύνῃ τὰ ἱμάτια καὶ τὸ σῶμα μὴ λούσηται ὕδατι, καὶ λήμψεται ἀνόμημα αὐτοῦ.	16 But if he wash them not, nor bathe his flesh; then he shall bear his iniquity.	16 But if he does not wash or bathe his body then he will bear his iniquity.”’”	16 וְאִם לֹא יְכַבֵּס וּבְשָׂרוֹ לֹא יִרְחָץ וְנָשָׂא עֲוֹנוֹ: פ

^{^[1]} “[T]he ancient people were tied to the sanctuary lest religion should be twisted and altered according to men’s fancies, and lest any inventions should creep in whereby they might easily decline into idolatry... Hence a profitable doctrine is gathered that men cannot be restrained from turning away to idolatry except by seeking from God’s mouth the one simple rule of piety.” ~John Calvin

^{^[2]} Rushdoony pointed out the connection between imbibing blood and breaking the First Commandment thus: “To attempt to govern or to take life apart from God’s permission, and apart from His service, is like attempting to govern the world and the future apart from God. For this reason, Leviticus... puts the eating of blood, divination, and soothsaying all on the same level as the same sin in essence.” (Institutes, p.36.)

^{^[3]} Ezekiel 33:25 “You eat meat with the blood in it, lift up your eyes to your idols as you shed blood...” (NASB)

^{^[4]} cf. John Calvin’s Harmony of the Law: “But we must bear in mind that he [Moses] sometimes calls those ‘strangers’ who, although born of heathen parents, had embraced the Law... whilst there were other ‘strangers’ whom uncircumcision separated from the children of Abraham as profane.”