Why must Israel bring sacrifices to the tabernacle and avoid eating blood?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Sacrifices must be brought to the Lord at the tabernacle door, and sacrifices to devils must end. Blood must not be eaten because the life of the flesh is in it and God has given it for atonement on the altar.

Chapter breakdown

Leviticus 17 gives rules for offering sacrifices and handling blood. The Lord tells Moses to speak to Aaron, his sons, and all the children of Israel. The first rule concerns an Israelite who kills an ox, sheep, or goat, either inside or outside the camp.

Challoner explains that the killing in this rule means killing for sacrifice. His note says that sacrifices must be offered at the Lord’s tabernacle or temple. He then gives a Christian interpretation: this signifies that no sacrifice is acceptable to God outside his true temple, the one holy, catholic, apostolic church. That interpretation belongs to the note, rather than to the words of verse 3.

If that Israelite does not bring the animal as an offering to the Lord at the tabernacle door, he is guilty of blood. The text says he is treated as if he had shed blood and shall perish from his people. The children of Israel must bring the animals they kill in the field to the priest at the door of the tabernacle of the testimony, to be offered to the Lord as peace offerings. The priest pours the blood on the Lord’s altar at the tabernacle door and burns the fat for a sweet smell to the Lord. They must no longer offer their sacrifices to devils, with whom the text says they have committed fornication. This is a lasting rule for them and their descendants.

The rule also applies to an Israelite or a stranger living among them who offers a whole burnt offering or a sacrificial victim. If he does not bring it to the door of the tabernacle of the testimony to be offered to the Lord, he shall perish from his people.

If an Israelite or a stranger living among them eats blood, the Lord says he will set his face against that person and cut him off from his people.

Challoner gives two reasons for the ban on eating blood. God reserved it for sacrifice on the altar as Lord of life and death, and the note sees it as a figure of Christ’s blood. The note also says the ban teaches people to recoil from shedding blood. It cites Genesis 9:4–6. These explanations and the reference to Christ are Challoner’s commentary.

The Lord gives the reason stated in Scripture: the life of the flesh is in the blood. He has given blood to make atonement on the altar for their souls. For that reason, neither the children of Israel nor the strangers living among them may eat blood.

When an Israelite or a stranger living among them takes a wild animal or bird that is lawful to eat through hunting or fowling, he must pour out its blood and cover it with earth. The text again says that the life of all flesh is in the blood. No blood of any flesh may be eaten; anyone who eats it shall be cut off.

Anyone, whether from Israel or a stranger, who eats an animal that died by itself or was caught by a beast must wash his clothes and his body with water. He is unclean until evening and is then made clean in this way. If he does not wash his clothes and body, he bears his guilt.

The story inside

The chapter distinguishes where a sacrifice belongs from what must happen to blood taken in hunting. An offering must come to the Lord at the tabernacle door, where the priest pours its blood on the altar; sacrifices to devils must stop. Blood from lawful hunted food is instead poured out and covered with earth. Both instructions sit beside the same ban on eating blood. Verse 11 supplies the link: the life of the flesh is in blood, and God has given it for atonement on the altar. The chapter then addresses eating an animal that died by itself or was caught by a beast, with washing and uncleanness until evening. It states these rules and consequences without recording a particular hunter’s actions or outcome.

Lessons worth keeping

1
A sacrifice must be brought to the Lord at the tabernacle door. The priest pours its blood on the altar and burns its fat; this requirement is joined to the lasting command to stop sacrificing to devils.
2
The ban on eating blood applies to Israelites and strangers living among them. The stated reason is that the life of the flesh is in blood and that God has given it for atonement on the altar.
3
The hunting rule and the washing rule have different triggers. Lawful hunted food requires pouring out and covering its blood; eating an animal that died by itself or was caught by a beast requires washing clothes and body and remaining unclean until evening.

Test your recall

Why is eating blood forbidden, and how does that reason connect the altar rule with the instruction to pour out and cover blood from lawful hunted food?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 12517–12530
Leviticus Chapter 17 No sacrifices to be offered but at the door of the tabernacle: a prohibition of blood. 17:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 17:2. Speak to Aaron and his sons, and to all the children of Israel, saying to them: This is the word, which the Lord hath commanded, saying: 17:3. Any man whosoever of the house of Israel, if he kill an ox, or a sheep, or a goat in the camp, or without the camp,
Lines 12531–12535
If he kill, etc.... That is, in order to sacrifice. The law of God forbids sacrifices to be offered in any other place but at the tabernacle or temple of the Lord; to signify that no sacrifice would be acceptable to God, out of his true temple, the one holy, catholic, apostolic church.
Lines 12537–12552
17:4. And offer it not at the door of the tabernacle an oblation to the Lord, shall be guilty of blood. As if he had shed blood, so shall he perish from the midst of his people. 17:5. Therefore the children of Israel shall bring to the priest their victims, which they kill in the field, that they may be sanctified to the Lord before the door of the tabernacle of the testimony: and they may sacrifice them for peace offerings to the Lord. 17:6. And the priest shall pour the blood upon the altar of the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of the testimony: and shall burn the fat for a sweet odour to the Lord. 17:7. And they shall no more sacrifice their victims to devils, with whom they have committed fornication. It shall be an ordinance for ever to them and to their posterity.
Lines 12554–12560
17:8. And thou shalt say to them: The man of the house of Israel, and of the strangers who sojourn among you, that offereth a holocaust or a victim, 17:9. And bringeth it not to the door of the tabernacle of the testimony, that it may be offered to the Lord, shall perish from among his people.
Lines 12562–12564
17:10. If any man whosoever of the house of Israel, and of the strangers that sojourn among them, eat blood, I will set my face against his soul, and will cut him off from among his people.
Lines 12566–12570
Eat blood.... To eat blood was forbidden in the law; partly, because God reserved it to himself, to be offered in sacrifices on the altar, as to the Lord of life and death; and as a figure of the blood of Christ; and partly, to give men a horror of shedding blood. Gen. 9.4, 5, 6.
Lines 12572–12577
17:11. Because the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you, that you may make atonement with it upon the altar for your souls, and the blood may be for an expiation of the soul. 17:12. Therefore I have said to the children of Israel: No soul of you, nor of the strangers that sojourn among you, shall eat blood.
Lines 12579–12587
17:13. Any man whosoever of the children of Israel, and of the strangers that sojourn among you, if by hunting or fowling, he take a wild beast or a bird, which is lawful to eat, let him pour out its blood, and cover it with earth. 17:14. For the life of all flesh is in the blood. Therefore I said to the children of Israel: you shall not eat the blood of any flesh at all, because the life of the flesh is in the blood, and whosoever eateth it, shall be cut off.
Lines 12589–12597
17:15. The soul that eateth that which died of itself, or has been caught by a beast, whether he be one of your own country or a stranger, shall wash his clothes and himself with water, and shall be defiled until the evening: and in this manner he shall be made clean. 17:16. But if he do not wash his clothes, and his body, he shall bear his iniquity.