“Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the people of Israel and say to them, This is the thing that the LORD has commanded.
If any one of the house of Israel kills an ox or a lamb or a goat in the camp, or kills it outside the camp,
and does not bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting to offer it as a gift to the LORD in front of the tabernacle of the LORD, bloodguilt shall be imputed to that man. He has shed blood, and that man shall be cut off from among his people.
This is to the end that the people of Israel may bring their sacrifices that they sacrifice in the open field, that they may bring them to the LORD, to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and sacrifice them as sacrifices of peace offerings to the LORD.
And the priest shall throw the blood on the altar of the LORD at the entrance of the tent of meeting and burn the fat for a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
So they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices to goat demons, after whom they whore. This shall be a statute forever for them throughout their generations.
“And you shall say to them, Any one of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among them, who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice
and does not bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting to offer it to the LORD, that man shall be cut off from his people.
“If any one of the house of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.
Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, No person among you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood.
“Any one also of the people of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among them, who takes in hunting any beast or bird that may be eaten shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth.
For the life of every creature is its blood: its blood is its life. Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off.
And every person who eats what dies of itself or what is torn by beasts, whether he is a native or a sojourner, shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening; then he shall be clean.
But if he does not wash them or bathe his flesh, he shall bear his iniquity.”
The blood theology chapter bridges the ritual sections of Leviticus 1–16 and the holiness sections of chapters 18–27. All slaughter of the three major domesticated animals must occur at the tabernacle — redirecting from open-field sacrifices (potentially to other gods) to the covenant's authorized worship. The theological foundation is declared with maximum clarity: the life of a creature is in the blood, and God gave the blood to make atonement on the altar. This dual principle — blood is life, and life belongs to God — grounds both the prohibition on eating blood (absolute, covering every bird and animal, for both Israelites and foreigners among them) and the requirement to drain and cover the blood of game animals. The chapter communicates the covenant's integrated theology: the offering system's blood application at the altar and the dietary prohibition on eating blood are two expressions of the same foundational truth. Hebrews 9:22 says without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness — Leviticus 17:11 is the Old Testament foundation for that New Testament declaration.
Leviticus 17:1
The Lord said to Moses. The blood regulations of Leviticus 17 form the theological bridge between the ritual sections of Leviticus 1–16 and the holiness sections of Leviticus 18–27. The chapter addresses three related concerns: where sacrifices may be made (only at the tabernacle), what to do with blood (never eat it), and what to do with game animals (drain and cover the blood). The unifying principle is the sanctity of blood as the medium of atonement.
Leviticus 17:2
Say to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites: this is what the Lord has commanded. The regulations are addressed to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites — the comprehensive address communicates that both the priests and the people are governed by the blood regulations that follow. The priestly administration of blood and the community's use of blood are both under divine command. The what the Lord has commanded formula grounds the regulations in divine authority before any specific rule is stated.
Leviticus 17:3
Any Israelite who sacrifices an ox, a lamb or a goat in the camp or outside it. The regulation addresses the slaughter of the three major domesticated animals — ox, lamb, goat — whether in the camp or outside it. The location-spanning prohibition communicates that the regulation applies everywhere the community lives, not only in proximity to the tabernacle. The animals that are used for food and for sacrifice cannot be killed in just any location for any purpose.
Leviticus 17:4
Instead of bringing it to the entrance to the tent of meeting to present it as an offering to the Lord in front of the tabernacle of the Lord — that person shall be considered guilty of bloodshed; they have shed blood and must be cut off from their people. The requirement to bring the animals to the tabernacle for slaughter is grounded in the bloodshed principle: unauthorized slaughter of the covenant animals is treated as the shedding of blood. The cut off penalty for unauthorized animal slaughter communicates the gravity of the violation: the community's food animals are so deeply integrated into the sacrificial system that their slaughter outside the sacrificial context is treated as a form of murder.
Leviticus 17:5
This is so the Israelites will bring to the Lord the sacrifices they are now making in the open fields. They must bring them to the priest, that is, to the Lord, at the entrance to the tent of meeting, and sacrifice them as fellowship offerings. The purpose of the centralized slaughter requirement: to redirect the sacrifices that the Israelites were making in the open fields — potentially to other gods or in unauthorized ways — to the proper location and the proper mediation. Deuteronomy 12:5–14 will adapt this regulation for the settled land context where Israel will be dispersed far from the central sanctuary. The centralization of sacrifice serves both the purity of the worship and the unity of the community.
Leviticus 17:6
The priest is to splash the blood against the altar of the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting and burn the fat as an aroma pleasing to the Lord. The properly presented animal produces the proper offering: blood splashed on the altar, fat burned for God, pleasing aroma. The fellowship offering that results from the properly presented animal is the community meal that the covenant's hospitality requires. The blood and fat that belong to God are given to God; the rest of the animal feeds the community. The proper worship creates the community's provision.
Leviticus 17:7
They must no longer offer any of their sacrifices to the goat idols to whom they prostitute themselves. This is to be a lasting ordinance for them and for the generations to come. The prohibition against sacrifice to the goat idols — the se'irim, the goat-demons or goat-idols of the surrounding cultures — grounds the centralized sacrifice requirement in the covenant's exclusive loyalty. The Israelites have been offering sacrifices in the open fields not necessarily as informal worship but potentially as offerings to the goat-idols. The lasting ordinance communicates that the prohibition against idolatrous sacrifice extends across the generations.
Leviticus 17:8
Say to them: any Israelite or any foreigner residing among them who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice. The regulations are extended to cover both Israelites and foreigners residing among them: the covenant community's worship standards apply to everyone living within the community's space. The foreigner who lives among Israel is subject to the same sacrificial regulations as the native Israelite. The inclusive application communicates the comprehensive character of the covenant's worship standards: the holiness of the community's space is protected from violation regardless of the violator's ethnic status.
Leviticus 17:9
And does not bring it to the entrance to the tent of meeting to sacrifice it to the Lord — that person must be cut off from the people of Israel. The cut off penalty for unauthorized sacrifice by either Israelite or foreigner reinforces the gravity of the violation: the failure to bring the sacrifice to the tabernacle is a capital covenant offense for anyone within the community's space. The equal penalty for the Israelite and the foreigner communicates the equal accountability of all who live within the covenant community's space.
Leviticus 17:10
I will set my face against any Israelite or any foreigner residing among them who eats blood, and I will cut off that person from the people. The divine first-person declaration against blood-eating: I will set my face against — a phrase indicating divine active opposition and judgment. The I will cut off communicates that the blood-eating prohibition is directly enforced by God, not only by the community's legal process. The divine personal engagement in enforcing the blood prohibition communicates the theological weight of what blood represents: the life that belongs to God cannot be consumed by humans without provoking the direct opposition of the God to whom that life belongs.
Leviticus 17:11
For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life. The theological foundation of the entire blood prohibition: the life of a creature is in the blood, and the blood makes atonement for life. The blood prohibition and the blood application to the altar are two sides of the same theological principle: blood is life, and life belongs to God. The blood that cannot be eaten is the blood that makes atonement on the altar. The prohibition on eating blood protects the exclusivity of the blood's atoning function. Hebrews 9:22 says without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness — the theological principle of Leviticus 17:11 is the foundation for the New Testament's understanding of the blood of Christ.
Leviticus 17:12
Therefore I say to the Israelites: none of you may eat blood, nor may any foreigner residing among you eat blood. The absolute prohibition on blood eating, grounded in the theological principle of verse 11, is stated with full force: none of you, not even the foreigner who resides among you. The universality of the prohibition communicates the universality of the theological principle: the life-in-blood principle is not a cultural convention but a theological reality that applies to every person living within the covenant community's space.
Leviticus 17:13
Any Israelite or any foreigner residing among you who hunts any animal or bird that may be eaten must drain out the blood and cover it with earth. The game animal regulation: the blood of hunted animals must be drained and covered with earth. The hunter who kills a game animal (which is not a domesticated animal subject to the tabernacle-slaughter requirement) must still honor the blood's sanctity by draining it and covering it. The covering of the blood with earth is a burial-like act that returns the life-substance to the ground — an acknowledgment that the life represented by the blood belongs not to the hunter but to the God who gave it.
Leviticus 17:14
Because the life of every creature is its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites: you must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off. The repetition of the life-is-blood principle grounds the game animal blood-covering requirement in the same theology as the general blood prohibition. The life of every creature is its blood — not only the domesticated sacrifice animals but every creature that the hunter pursues. The blood prohibition extends beyond the tabernacle's sacrificial context to every animal killed by every person within the covenant community's life.
Leviticus 17:15
Anyone, whether native-born or foreigner, who eats anything found dead or torn by wild animals must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening; then they will be clean. The impurity from eating naturally dead or predator-killed animals: cloth-washing, bathing, until-evening impurity. The meat that was not properly slaughtered — whether it died naturally or was killed by a predator — may not be eaten without impurity consequences. The until-evening impurity is less severe than the cut off penalty for deliberate blood-eating, communicating a graduated response to the different levels of violation: deliberate blood consumption requires cut off; eating improperly dead meat requires the standard purification.
Leviticus 17:16
But if they do not wash their clothes and bathe themselves, they will be held responsible. The failure to perform the required purification after eating naturally dead meat creates ongoing responsibility: the person who ignores the purification requirement bears the consequence. The blood and purity regulations of Leviticus 17 close with the principle of personal responsibility: the covenant's regulations are not self-enforcing; the person who violates them and fails to address the violation bears the guilt. The chapter that began with the divine declaration I will set my face against closes with the individual's responsibility to maintain the purity that the covenant requires.