Leviticus 17

Berean Standard Bible

Chapter summary

The Lord instructs Moses to command Aaron, his sons, and all Israelites that any ox, lamb, or goat slaughtered must be brought to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting as an offering to the Lord rather than being killed in the open fields. The priest then splatters the blood on the altar and burns the fat, ensuring sacrifices are no longer made to goat demons. Furthermore, the Lord forbids any Israelite or foreigner living among them from eating blood, stating that the life of the flesh is in the blood and given for altar atonement, and anyone who consumes blood will be cut off from the people. Hunters who catch a wild animal or bird must drain its blood and cover it with dirt. Finally, anyone native or foreign who eats an animal found dead or mauled by wild beasts must wash their clothes and bathe in water, remaining unclean until evening, or else bear their iniquity.

Summary automatically generated from the Bible text.

Words of Jesus in red

¹Then the LORD said to Moses, ²“Speak to Aaron, his sons, and all the Israelites and tell them this is what the LORD has commanded: ³‘Anyone from the house of Israel who slaughters an ox, a lamb, or a goat in the camp or outside of it ⁴instead of bringing it to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting to present it as an offering to the LORD before His tabernacle—that man shall incur bloodguilt. He has shed blood and must be cut off from among his people. ⁵For this reason the Israelites will bring to the LORD the sacrifices they have been offering in the open fields. They are to bring them to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and offer them as sacrifices of peace offerings to the LORD. ⁶The priest will then splatter the blood on the altar of the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and burn the fat as a pleasing aroma to the LORD. ⁷They must no longer offer their sacrifices to the goat demons to which they have prostituted themselves. This will be a permanent statute for them for the generations to come.’ ⁸Tell them that if anyone from the house of Israel or any foreigner living among them offers a burnt offering or a sacrifice ⁹but does not bring it to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting to sacrifice it to the LORD, that man must be cut off from his people. ¹⁰If anyone from the house of Israel or a foreigner living among them eats any blood, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from among his people. ¹¹For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for your souls upon the altar; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. ¹²Therefore I say to the Israelites, ‘None of you may eat blood, nor may any foreigner living among you eat blood.’ ¹³And if any Israelite or foreigner living among them hunts down a wild animal or bird that may be eaten, he must drain its blood and cover it with dirt. ¹⁴For the life of all flesh is its blood. Therefore I have told the Israelites, ‘You must not eat the blood of any living thing, because the life of all flesh is its blood; whoever eats it must be cut off.’ ¹⁵And any person, whether native or foreigner, who eats anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean until evening; then he will be clean. ¹⁶But if he does not wash his clothes and bathe himself, then he shall bear his iniquity.”

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Louis Segond 1910 and Berean Standard Bible: public domain. Cross references: open-cross-ref, Creative Commons BY 4.0.