Bible Strands
Leviticus 7:26
You must not eat the blood of any bird or animal in any of your dwellings.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God addresses Moses and the Israelite community within the regulations for sacrificial offerings. The command is delivered during the formal establishment of covenant worship and dietary laws.
The words — The Hebrew term דָּם (dam) literally means blood, paired with the verb תֹאכְל֔וּ (to.khe.Lu), which commands you must eat. The phrase מוֹשְׁבֹתֵי/כֶ֑ם (mo.she.vo.tei./Khem) specifies the restriction applies to all of your dwelling places.
The thread — This rule recurs with expanded scope and consequences in later texts. Genesis 9:4 adds the condition regarding meat with its lifeblood still in it, Leviticus 3:17 frames it as a permanent statute wherever you live, Leviticus 7:27 attaches the penalty of being cut off from his people, and Leviticus 17:10 extends it to foreigners living among them with the warning that God will set His face against the violator.
Why it lands — The text explicitly forbids consuming the blood of birds and livestock in any dwelling. It requires the reader to treat blood as non-nutritive and separate from permitted food, recognizing the accompanying penalties and broader covenant boundaries.
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
Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings.
Cross-references
- Genesis 9:4 But you must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it.
- 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 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 15:20 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.
- 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.”
- Ezekiel 33:25 Therefore tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘You eat meat with the blood in it, lift up your eyes to your idols, and shed blood. Should you then possess the land?
- John 6:53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you.
- 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.
- Ephesians 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace
- 1 Timothy 4:4 For every creation of God is good, and nothing that is received with thanksgiving should be rejected,