The Slaughter of Animals, 1-9
17:1 The LORD spoke to Moses: 17:2 “Speak to Aaron, his sons, and all the Israelites, and tell them: ‘This is the word that the LORD has commanded: 17:3 “Blood guilt will be accounted to any man from the house of Israel who slaughters an ox or a lamb or a goat inside the camp or outside the camp, 17:4 but has not brought it to the entrance of the Meeting Tent to present it as an offering to the LORD before the tabernacle of the LORD. He has shed blood, so that man will be cut off from the midst of his people. 17:5 This is so that the Israelites will bring their sacrifices that they are sacrificing in the open field to the LORD at the entrance of the Meeting Tent to the priest and sacrifice them there as peace offering sacrifices to the LORD. 17:6 The priest is to splash the blood on the altar of the LORD at the entrance of the Meeting Tent, and offer the fat up in smoke for a soothing aroma to the LORD. 17:7 So they must no longer offer their sacrifices to the goat demons, acting like prostitutes by going after them. This is to be a perpetual statute for them throughout their generations.
17:8 “You are to say to them: ‘Any man from the house of Israel or from the foreigners who reside in their midst, who offers a burnt offering or a sacrifice 17:9 but does not bring it to the entrance of the Meeting Tent to offer it to the LORD—that person will be cut off from his people.
Prohibition against Eating Blood, 10-14
17:10 “ ‘Any man from the house of Israel or from the foreigners who reside in their midst who eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats the blood, and I will cut him off from the midst of his people, 17:11 for the life of every living thing is in the blood. So I myself have assigned it to you on the altar to make atonement for your lives, for the blood makes atonement by means of the life. 17:12 Therefore, I have said to the Israelites: No person among you is to eat blood, and no resident foreigner who lives among you is to eat blood.
‘Any man…who eats any blood” – that is, meat with blood in it.
“The life of every living thing is in the blood” –
Ray Comfort (Scientific Facts and the Bible) finds in this an anticipation of modern physiology:
‘We now know that blood is the source of life. If you lose your blood, you will lose your life.’
Here is a response:
‘Why does the Levitical law prohibit the consuming of blood? Because blood was not intended for consumption but for the making of atonement. To eat blood is to use it in an inordinate way. That’s what lies behind the prohibition. It has absolutely nothing to do with any advanced scientific revelation that blood is the body’s oxygen transport system. It had to do with the observation that 1) the loss of blood leads to death and 2) the claim of the Priestly author that blood in animals is that which atones for sin. In other words, the claim is religious, having to do with the sacrificial cult and not scientific, having to do with the composition of blood and its biological function.’
As is well known, the Jehovah’s Witnesses are forbidden to received blood, either ingested or by transfusion.
Rooker (NAC) states:
‘This verse is one of the clearest texts in the Bible describing the idea of expiation through substitution. God accepts the blood of the animal, which is the life of the animal, in place of human blood and human life. In Jewish tradition atonement is possible only through the shedding of blood.35 Since blood is sacrosanct, it is not available for human use; it belongs only to God, the giver of life. This evaluation of blood in the Old Testament was unique among the cultures of the ancient world.’
Tidball (BST):
‘The reason given for the taboo on eating blood is because of what blood symbolizes. The statement is repeated that the life of a creature is in the blood (11, cf. 14). The connection between life and blood seems obvious. Loss of blood leads to loss of life—blood shed is life terminated—so it is natural to assume that blood carries the essence of life in it. God has determined that it is by the means of shed blood that atonement should be made. It is not, therefore, for human beings to seek to make use of blood for other purposes or to appropriate it for themselves. It belongs to the Lord alone.’