Leviticus 17:10–13

Footnotes

1. 23 Heb “And man, man.” The repetition of the word “man” is distributive, meaning “any (or every) man” ( §123.c; cf. Lev 15:2).
2. 24 Heb “from the sojourner who sojourns.”
3. 25 The , , and have “your” (plural) rather than “their.”
4. 26 Heb “I will give my faces against [literally “in”] the soul/person/life [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh, feminine] who eats the blood and I will cut it [i.e., that נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] off from the midst of its people.” The uses of נֶפֶשׁ in this and the following verse are most significant for the use of animal blood in Israel’s sacrificial system. Unfortunately, it is a most difficult word to translate accurately and consistently, and this presents a major problem for the rendering of these verses (see, e.g., G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [], ). No matter which translation of נֶפֶשׁ one uses here, it is important to see that both man and animal have נֶפֶשׁ and that this נֶפֶשׁ is identified with the blood. See the further remarks on v. below. On the “cutting off” penalty see the note on v. above. In this instance, God takes it on himself to “cut off” the person (i.e., extirpation).
5. 27 Heb “the life of the flesh.” Here “flesh” stands for “every living thing,” that is, all creatures (cf. , , “every creature”; “every living creature.”
6. 28 Heb “for the soul/life (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh) of the flesh, it is in the blood” (cf. the note of v. 10 above and v. 14 below). Although most modern English versions begin a new sentence in v. 11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood” (see, e.g., , , , ), the כִּי (ki, “for, because”) at the beginning of the verse suggests continuation from v. 10, as the rendering here indicates (see, e.g., , ; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [], ; and G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [], ). This verse is a well-known crux interpretum for blood atonement in the Bible. The close association between the blood and “the soul/life [נֶפֶשׁ] of the flesh [בָּשָׂר, basar]” (v. 11a) begins in Gen 9:2–5 (if not Gen 4:10–11), where the Lord grants man the eating of meat (i.e., the “flesh” of animals) but also issues a warning: “But flesh [בָּשָׂר] with its soul/life [נֶפֶשׁ], [which is] its blood, you shall not eat” (cf. G. J. Wenham, Genesis [], 1: and ). Unfortunately, the difficulty in translating נֶפֶשׁ consistently (see the note on v. above) obscures the close connection between the (human) “person” in v. 10 and “the life” (of animals, 2 times) and “your (human) lives” in v. 11, all of which are renderings of נֶפֶשׁ. The basic logic of the passage is that (a) no נֶפֶשׁ should eat the blood when he eats the בָּשָׂר of an animal (v. 10) because (b) the נֶפֶשׁ of בָּשָׂר is identified with the blood that flows through and permeates it (v. 11a), and (c) the Lord himself has assigned (i.e., limited the use of) animal blood, that is, animal נֶפֶשׁ, to be the instrument or price of making atonement for the נֶפֶשׁ of people (v. 11b). See the detailed remarks and literature cited in R. E. Averbeck, 2:, .
7. 29 Heb “And I myself have given it to you.”
8. 30 Heb “for the blood, it by (בְּ, bet preposition, “in”] the life makes atonement.” The interpretation of the preposition is pivotal here. Some scholars have argued that it is a bet of exchange; that is, “the blood makes atonement in exchange for the life [of the slaughtered animal]” (see R. E. Averbeck, 2:, for analysis and criticism of this view). It is more likely that, as in the previous clause (“your lives”), “life/soul” (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh) here refers to the person who makes the offering, not the animal offered. The blood of the animal makes atonement for the person who offers it either “by means of” (instrumental bet) the “life/soul” of the animal, which it symbolizes or embodies (the meaning of the translation given here); or perhaps the blood of the animal functions as “the price” (bet of price) for ransoming the “life/soul” of the person.
9. 31 Heb “all/any person from you shall not eat blood.”
10. 32 Heb “and the sojourner, the one sojourning in your midst, shall not eat blood.”
11. 33 A few medieval Hebrew , , and . have “from the house of Israel” as in vv. 3, 8, and 10, but the agrees with the .
12. 34 Heb “from the sojourner who sojourns.”
13. 35 The , , , and certain of have “your” (plural) rather than “their” (cf. v. 10 above).
14. 36 Heb “[wild] game of animal.”
15. 37 That is, it must be a clean animal, not an unclean animal (cf. Lev 11).