Genesis 9:4
in Genesis 9But you must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
KJV
But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
⋯
This verse in Genesis 9
Commentary
14 notes on this verseAnd He changed the food of men, giving them leave to eat flesh: for from Adam the first-formed until the Flood men ate only of seeds and the fruit of trees, and to eat flesh was not permitted to them.
This site's exposition
meat with its lifeblood still in it
One thing is held back from the grant, meat with its lifeblood still in it. Leviticus 17:11 puts the same ground under the altar, that the life of the flesh is in the blood and God gave it to make atonement. Adam Clarke reads the rule here as guarding what would become the instrument of expiation, the means by which sin is covered. Acts 15:20 keeps it for Gentile believers.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
God also blessed Noah and his sons that they might be fruitful and multiply and that fear of them should fall upon all flesh both in the sea and on dry land. "Only you shall not eat flesh with its life."
From this the eating of meat takes its beginning, not for the purpose of prompting them to gluttony. But since some of the people were about to offer sacrifices and make thanksgiving to the Lord, he grants them authority over food and obviates any anxiety about foods lest they seem to be abstaining from foods because they were not properly consecrated. "I have given you them all," he says, "as I did the green grass." Then, as in the case of Adam when he instructed him to abstain from the one tree while enjoying the others, so in this case too. After permitting the consumption of all foods without hesitation, he says, "except you are not to eat flesh with its lifeblood in it." So what does this statement mean? It means "strangled," for an animal's blood is its soul. So since they were about to offer sacrifices in the form of animals, he is teaching them in these words that as long as the blood has been set aside for me, the flesh is for you. In doing so, however, he is intent upon resisting in advance any impulse toward homicide.
And the Lord blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth; and the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, …
The Medieval Church1 voice
Except that you shall not eat flesh with its blood. For blood rightly denotes carnal desires and carnal sense. Blood is poured out when one renounces carnal temptations and thoughts, in which one lived poorly, so that such people can say with the Apostle: Yet …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Man must not prejudice his own life by eating that food which is unwholsome, and prejudicial to his health. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat - Blood made atonement for the soul, Lev. xvii, 11. The life of the sacrifice was accepted for the life of the sinner.
7 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
(4.) That during the continuance of the law of sacrifices, in which the blood made atonement for the soul ( Lev. xvii. 11 ), signifying that the life of the sacrifice was accepted for the life of the sinner, blood must not be looked upon as a common thing, but must be poured out before the Lord ( 2 Sam. xxiii.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
The seal of that covenant, viz. the rainbow, ver. 12-17. A particular passage concerning Noah and his sons, which occasioned some prophecies that related to after-times. (1.) Noah's sin and shame, ver. 20-21.
quarantine:anchor (2026-07-29) — cites-ver-12/20-anchored-4-4
Man must not prejudice his own life by eating that food which is unwholsome, and prejudicial to his health. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat - Blood made atonement for the soul, Lev. xvii, 11. The life of the sacrifice was accepted for the life of the sinner.
But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall you not eat.
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood - Though animal food was granted, yet the blood was most solemnly forbidden, because it was the life of the beast, and this life was to be offered to God as an atonement for sin. Hence the blood was ever held sacred, because it was the grand instrument of expiation, and because it was typical of that blood by which we enter into the holiest. 1. Before the deluge it was not eaten, because animal food was not in use.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
But flesh . . . the blood . . . shall ye not eat--The sole intention of this prohibition was to prevent these excesses of cannibal ferocity in eating flesh of living animals, to which men in the earlier ages of the world were liable.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
But flesh . . . the blood . . . shall ye not eat--The sole intention of this prohibition was to prevent these excesses of cannibal ferocity in eating flesh of living animals, to which men in the earlier ages of the world were liable.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אַךְ־ | ʾakh- | nevertheless | H389 → | 161 times |
| בָּשָׂ֕ר | basar | flesh | H1320 → | 270 times |
| בְּנַפְשׁ֥וֹ | benafsho | with life its | H5315 → | 754 times |
| דָמ֖וֹ | damo | blood its | H1818 → | 360 times |
| לֹ֥א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| תֹאכֵֽלוּ׃ | tokhelu | you must eat | H398 → | 810 times |
אַךְ־nevertheless
ʾakh-H389 →161 times
בָּשָׂ֕רflesh
basarH1320 →270 times
בְּנַפְשׁ֥וֹwith life its
benafshoH5315 →754 times
דָמ֖וֹblood its
damoH1818 →360 times
לֹ֥אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
תֹאכֵֽלוּ׃you must eat
tokheluH398 →810 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Acts 15:20Instead, 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.
it leads to
- 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.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- 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.”
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Revelation 2:20
But I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads My servants to be sexually immoral and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
- Revelation 2:14
But I have a few things against you, because some of you hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block before the Israelites so they would eat food…
- Acts 15:29
Through
Deuteronomy 12:23Only be sure not to eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.
it leads to
- Leviticus 17:11
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for your souls upon the altar; for it is the blood that makes atonement…
- Deuteronomy 12:16
but you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Leviticus 17:13–14
And if any Israelite or foreigner living among them hunts down a wild animal or bird that may be eaten, he must drain its blood and cover it with dirt.
- Leviticus 3:16–17
Then the priest is to burn the food on the altar as an offering made by fire, a pleasing aroma. All the fat is the LORD’s.
- Leviticus 17:11
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies6
About Genesis
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Bede, Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron); Cosmas Indicopleustes, The Christian Topography, Book 5; Ephrem the Syrian, COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 6.14.1; Irenaeus, The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, Section 22; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis; John Chrysostom, HOMILIES ON GENESIS 27.13; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.