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Deuteronomy 12:20-26
New English Translation

The Sanctity of Blood

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,”[a] you may do so as you wish.[b] 21 If the place he[c] chooses to locate his name is too far for you, you may slaughter any of your herd and flock he[d] has given you just as I have stipulated; you may eat them in your villages[e] just as you wish. 22 As you eat the gazelle or ibex, so you may eat these; the ritually impure and pure alike may eat them. 23 However, by no means eat the blood, for the blood is life itself[f]—you must not eat the life with the meat. 24 You must not eat it! You must pour it out on the ground like water. 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.[g] 26 But the holy things and votive offerings that belong to you, you must pick up and take to the place the Lord will choose.[h]

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 12:20 tn Heb “for my soul desires to eat meat.”
  2. Deuteronomy 12:20 tn Heb “according to all the desire of your soul you may eat meat.”
  3. Deuteronomy 12:21 tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 12:5.
  4. Deuteronomy 12:21 tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 12:5.
  5. Deuteronomy 12:21 tn Heb “gates” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “in your own community.”
  6. Deuteronomy 12:23 sn 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).
  7. Deuteronomy 12:25 tc 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.
  8. Deuteronomy 12:26 tc Again, to complete a commonly attested wording the LXX adds after “choose” the phrase “to place his name there.” This shows insensitivity to deliberate departures from literary stereotypes. The MT reading is to be preferred.
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