Imamat 17:10

Prohibition against Eating Blood

17:10 “‘Any man ¹  from the house of Israel or from the foreigners who reside ²  in their ³  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, ⁴ 

Imamat 20:14

20:14 If a man has sexual intercourse with both a woman and her mother, ⁵  it is lewdness. ⁶  Both he and they must be burned to death, ⁷  so there is no lewdness in your midst.

Imamat 21:14

21:14 He must not marry ⁸  a widow, a divorced woman, or one profaned by prostitution; he may only take a virgin from his people ⁹  as a wife.

Imamat 26:8

26:8 Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword.

[17:10]  ¹ tn Heb “And man, man.” The repetition of the word “man” is distributive, meaning “any (or every) man” (GKC 395-96 §123.c; cf. Lev 15:2).

[17:10]  ² tn Heb “from the sojourner who sojourns.”

[17:10]  ³ tc The LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate have “your” (plural) rather than “their.”

[17:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “I will give my faces against [literally “in”] the soul/person/life [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh, feminine] who eats the blood and I will cut it [i.e., that נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] off from the midst of its people.” The uses of נֶפֶשׁ in this and the following verse are most significant for the use of animal blood in Israel’s sacrificial system. Unfortunately, it is a most difficult word to translate accurately and consistently, and this presents a major problem for the rendering of these verses (see, e.g., G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 244-45). No matter which translation of נֶפֶשׁ one uses here, it is important to see that both man and animal have נֶפֶשׁ and that this נֶפֶשׁ is identified with the blood. See the further remarks on v. 11 below. On the “cutting off” penalty see the note on v. 4 above. In this instance, God takes it on himself to “cut off” the person (i.e., extirpation).

[20:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “And a man who takes a woman and her mother.” The Hebrew verb “to take” in this context means “to engage in sexual intercourse.”

[20:14]  ⁶ tn Regarding “lewdness,” see the note on Lev 18:17 above.

[20:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “in fire they shall burn him and them.” The active plural verb sometimes requires a passive translation (GKC 460 §144.f, g), esp. when no active plural subject has been expressed in the context. The present translation specifies “burned to death” because the traditional rendering “burnt with fire” (KJV, ASV; NASB “burned with fire”) could be understood to mean “branded” or otherwise burned, but not fatally.

[21:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “take.” In context this means “take as wife,” i.e., “marry.”

[21:14]  ⁹ tc The MT has literally, “from his peoples,” but Smr, LXX, Syriac, Targum, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “from his people,” referring to the Israelites as a whole.