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Deuteronomy 12:20-25

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 he³ chooses to locate his name is too far for you, you may slaughter any of your herd and flock he⁴ has given you just as I have stipulated; you may eat them in your villages⁵ 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 itself⁶ – 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. 12:25 You must not eat it so that it may go well with you and your children after you; you will be doing what is right in the Lord’s sight.⁷

¹tn Heb “for my soul desires to eat meat.”

²tn Heb “according to all the desire of your soul you may eat meat.”

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

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

⁵tn Heb “gates” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “in your own community.”

⁶sn 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).

⁷tc Heb “in the eyes of the Lord.” The LXX adds “your God” to create the common formula, “the Lord your God.” The MT is preferred precisely because it does not include the stereotyped formula; thus it more likely preserves the original text.

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