Reflections on Leviticus 17

Leviticus 17 (Contemporary English Version)

1. The LORD told Moses
   
2. to tell Aaron, his sons, and everyone else in Israel:
   
3. Whenever you kill any of your cattle, sheep, or goats as sacrifices to me, you must do it at the entrance to the sacred tent. If you don't, you will be guilty of pouring out blood, and you will no longer belong to the community of Israel.
   
4. (SEE 17:3)
   
5. And so, when you sacrifice an animal to ask my blessing, it must not be done out in a field,
   
6. but in front of the sacred tent. Then a priest can splatter its blood against the bronze altar and send its fat up in smoke with a smell that pleases me.
   
7. Don't ever turn from me again and offer sacrifices to goat-demons. This law will never change.
   
8. Remember! No one in Israel, including foreigners, is to offer a sacrifice anywhere
   
9. except at the entrance to the sacred tent. If you do, you will no longer belong to my people.
   
10. I will turn against any of my people who eat blood. This also includes any foreigners living among you.
    
11. Life is in the blood, and I have given you the blood of animals to sacrifice in place of your own.
    
12. That's also why I have forbidden you to eat blood.
    
13. Even if you should hunt and kill a bird or an animal, you must drain out the blood and cover it with soil.
    
14. The life of every living creature is in its blood. That's why I have forbidden you to eat blood and why I have warned you that anyone who does will no longer belong to my people.
    
15. If you happen to find a dead animal and eat it, you must take a bath and wash your clothes, but you are still unclean until evening.
    
16. If you don't take a bath, you will suffer for what you did wrong.
    
    

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    This chapter deals with killing animals apart from sacrificial offerings and with the eating of meat that had blood in it.  While the Israelites were in the wilderness with God's provision of manna and quail for food and a limited source of domesticated animals for sacrifices, the people were prohibited from killing domesticated animals apart from sacrificial offerings. If they wanted meat to eat other than quail, they must first offer the animal as a sacrifice. An additional reason for this prohibition apart from the limited source of sacrificial animals was to prohibit any sacrifices to the goat-demons. A practice they picked up in Egypt.
    
    There are multiple references in Leviticus to eating of meat with the blood still in it. This reference in chapter 17 is the clearest and provides the rationale behind it. God says He will turn against anyone, Israelite or foreigner living among the Israelites, who "eats any blood."  Such person will be "cut off from his people." (17:10) The reason is that "the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have appointed it to you to make atonement on the altar for your lives, since it is the lifeblood that makes atonement." (17:11) With this prohibition against eating blood, the Israelites were told they could hunt wild animals and birds for food only if they "drain its blood and cover it with dirt." (17:13)
    
    The final regulation of the chapter regarded the eating of an animal that had died of natural causes. Since the blood would not have been drained properly the person eating it would be unclean and must "wash his clothes and bathe himself." (17:16)