Bible Strands
Genesis 9:4
But you must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God addresses Noah and his sons immediately after granting them permission to eat all moving creatures, establishing a boundary on that new dietary allowance.
The words — The Hebrew construction בָּשָׂר בְּנַפְשׁוֹ דָמוֹ (baśar bənapšô dāmô) literally reads "flesh with its life its blood," using נֶפֶשׁ (napheš) for "life" to denote the vital essence contained within the meat.
The thread — The same dietary restriction appears in Deuteronomy 12:16, Deuteronomy 12:23, and Deuteronomy 15:23, where the text commands pouring blood on the ground and explicitly states that blood is the life.
Why it lands — The text requires readers to separate the physical food from the vital fluid before consumption, treating the prohibition as a concrete boundary rather than a symbolic warning.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 12:23 Only be sure not to eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.
- Deuteronomy 12:16 but you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.
- Deuteronomy 15:23 But you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.
- Acts 15:20 Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from blood.
- Leviticus 7:26 You must not eat the blood of any bird or animal in any of your dwellings.
- Leviticus 17:10 If 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.
- Acts 15:29 You must abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.
- Leviticus 3:17 This is a permanent statute for the generations to come, wherever you live: You must not eat any fat or any blood.”
- Leviticus 19:26 You must not eat anything with blood still in it. You must not practice divination or sorcery.
- 1 Samuel 14:33 Then someone reported to Saul: “Look, the troops are sinning against the LORD by eating meat with the blood still in it.” “You have broken faith,” said Saul. “Roll a large stone over here at once.”