Deuteronomy 12:23

12:23 However, by no means eat the blood, for the blood is life itself 1  – you must not eat the life with the meat!

Deuteronomy 15:22

15:22 You may eat it in your villages, 2  whether you are ritually impure or clean, 3  just as you would eat a gazelle or an ibex.

1 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).

2 tn Heb “in your gates.”

3 tc The LXX adds ἐν σοί (en soi, “among you”) to make clear that the antecedent is the people and not the animals. That is, the people, whether ritually purified or not, may eat such defective animals.