Leviticus 17: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The LORD tells Moses to instruct Aaron, his sons, and all Israel that any ox, lamb, or goat that is slaughtered must be brought to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, where the priest sprinkles the blood on the altar and burns the fat; anyone who does not is held guilty of blood and cut off from his people. The same requirement is put on foreigners living among them, and they are told to stop sacrificing to the goat demons. The chapter then forbids eating blood of any kind, since the life of a living body is in its blood and God has given the blood on the altar to make atonement; blood from hunted animals must be poured out and covered with dirt. It closes with the washing required of anyone who eats an animal that died on its own or was torn by wild animals.

Claim by Claim

1. 17:1
   • The LORD spoke to Moses.
   • The LORD told Moses to say something.
2. 17:2
   • The LORD told Moses to speak to Aaron.
   • The LORD told Moses to speak to Aaron's sons.
   • The LORD told Moses to speak to all the children of Israel.
   • Moses was to tell them that this is the thing the LORD commanded.
3. 17:3
   • The rule applies to any man of the house of Israel who slaughters an ox, a lamb, or a goat inside the camp.
   • The rule also applies to any such man who slaughters it outside the camp.
4. 17:4
   • The offense is not bringing the animal to the entrance of the tent of meeting.
   • The animal is to be brought there to present an offering to the LORD before the LORD's tabernacle.
   • Bloodguilt shall be reckoned to that man.
   • That man has shed blood.
   • That man shall be cut off from among his people.
5. 17:5
   • The purpose is that the children of Israel bring their sacrifices, which they have been sacrificing in the open field.
   • They are to bring them to the LORD, to the entrance of the tent of meeting, to the priest.
   • They are to sacrifice them as peace offerings to the LORD.
6. 17:6
   • The priest shall dash the blood on the altar of the LORD at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
   • The priest shall burn the fat as a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
7. 17:7
   • They shall no longer sacrifice their sacrifices to the goat demons.
   • They have been prostituting themselves after those goat demons.
   • This shall be a perpetual statute for them throughout their generations.
8. 17:8
   • Moses is to say this to them as well.
   • The rule applies to any man of the house of Israel who offers a burnt offering or a sacrifice.
   • The rule also applies to any foreigner who sojourns among them and offers a burnt offering or a sacrifice.
9. 17:9
   • The offense is not bringing it to the entrance of the tent of meeting to offer it to the LORD.
   • That man shall be cut off from his people.
10. 17:10
    • The rule applies to any man of the house of Israel who eats any blood.
    • The rule also applies to any foreigner sojourning among them who eats any blood.
    • The LORD will set his face against the person who eats blood.
    • The LORD will cut that person off from among his people.
11. 17:11
    • The life of the flesh is in the blood.
    • The LORD has given the blood to them on the altar to make atonement for their souls.
    • It is the blood that makes atonement by means of the life.
12. 17:12
    • The LORD said to the children of Israel that no soul among them shall eat blood.
    • The LORD said that the foreigner sojourning among them shall not eat blood.
13. 17:13
    • The rule applies to any man of the children of Israel who hunts and takes a wild animal or bird that may be eaten.
    • The rule also applies to any foreigner sojourning among them who does so.
    • He shall pour out its blood.
    • He shall cover the blood with dust.
14. 17:14
    • The life of all flesh is its blood.
    • The LORD told the children of Israel not to eat the blood of any flesh.
    • The reason given is that the life of all flesh is its blood.
    • Anyone who eats it shall be cut off.
15. 17:15
    • The rule applies to every person who eats an animal that died of itself or was torn by beasts.
    • The rule applies to the native-born and to the foreigner alike.
    • He shall wash his clothes.
    • He shall bathe in water.
    • He shall be unclean until evening.
    • Then he shall be clean.
16. 17:16
    • If he does not wash his clothes, and does not bathe his flesh, he shall bear his iniquity.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

17:1

"The LORD" printed with small capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew consonants usually written Yahweh. Ancient readers avoided saying it aloud and substituted the Hebrew word for "Lord," and English Bibles preserve that custom with the capitals.

17:2

Aaron and his sons are the priests, the only family allowed to handle sacrifice at the altar. The instruction goes to them and to everyone else because this chapter governs what ordinary people do with animals, not just what priests do.

17:3

The camp is the Israelite encampment in the wilderness, where this law is set: a portable settlement of tents around the sanctuary. "Inside the camp or outside the camp" covers every possible place, so no slaughter is exempt.

17:4

The Tent of Meeting (also called the tabernacle) was the portable sanctuary carried through the wilderness (a curtained tent with a courtyard, where the priests served and where God was said to meet Israel. Its "entrance" was the one authorised place for sacrifice. "Held guilty of blood" translates a legal term used elsewhere for murder: the man who slaughters an animal outside the sanctuary is treated as having shed blood unlawfully, as though he had killed a person. "Cut off from among his people" is a fixed penalty formula in these laws. Its exact force is disputed) it may mean expulsion from the community, or death, or the ending of the offender's family line, and the Hebrew does not settle which.

17:5

In earlier practice an Israelite could kill an animal for meat anywhere, and the killing counted as an offering. This law channels all such slaughter to the sanctuary. A peace offering (Hebrew *shelamim*) was a sacrifice in which only the fat and blood went to the altar; the worshiper and his household ate the meat, so it doubled as an ordinary meal.

17:6

Sprinkling or dashing the blood against the sides of the altar was the standard priestly act in every animal sacrifice. The fat, specifically the hard fat around the organs, belonged to God and was burned rather than eaten. "A pleasing smell" is a stock phrase for a sacrifice accepted, drawn from the older idea of an offering rising to God as smoke.

17:7

"Goat demons" translates a Hebrew word meaning "hairy ones" or "he-goats", used of goat-shaped spirits thought to haunt open country, the kind of powers a herdsman sacrificing in a field might try to appease. The King James "devils" imports a later idea. "Gone a whoring after" (KJV) is the standard Hebrew image for worshiping other gods: the relationship between Israel and God is spoken of as a marriage, so worship elsewhere is described as sexual infidelity. It is a metaphor, not a charge of prostitution.

17:8

A burnt offering was wholly consumed on the altar, with no portion eaten by anyone; "sacrifice" here covers the other kinds, where meat was eaten. The "foreigner living among you" (KJV "stranger that sojourneth") is not a passing traveler but a resident outsider settled permanently in Israel, bound by these particular laws, though not by all.

17:10

"I will set my face against" is a formula of direct personal opposition, the opposite of the blessing in which God's face shines on someone. Where other penalties are carried out by the community, here God states that he will act. "Any blood" means blood consumed as food, meat not drained, or blood eaten or drunk on its own, as was done in some neighboring practice.

17:11

"Life" here translates *nephesh*, a word covering life, breath, self and person; the same word is rendered "soul" by the King James in this verse and "person" elsewhere in the chapter. The claim is about the seat of life, not about a soul distinct from the body. "Atonement" (Hebrew *kipper*) means to wipe clean, cover over, or pay a ransom, the removing of an offense or its consequence. The Hebrew phrase translated "for your lives" can also be read "at the cost of your lives", and the ambiguity is in the original.

17:13

Hunted game could not be brought to the altar (its blood was not offered), so the blood is instead poured onto the ground and buried, keeping it from being eaten and treating it with the same restraint as sacrificial blood. Covering it with dirt is the same gesture used for burying something that must not be left exposed.

17:15

An animal that dies naturally or is killed by predators has not been drained of blood, which is why eating it makes a person unclean. "Unclean" is a ritual status, not dirtiness or sin: it simply bars a person from the sanctuary and from holy food until the set time passes. The Israelite day changed at sunset, so "unclean until evening" means the condition ends that same night.

17:16

"Bear the guilt of his sin" (KJV "bear his iniquity") is a legal formula meaning he carries the liability himself and must answer for it, rather than having it cleared by the washing. It does not specify what the consequence will be.