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Leviticus 17 Bible study: The life is in the blood
Leviticus 17 brings every sacrifice to the door of the Tent of Meeting, and gives the reason blood is never eaten, for Israel or the stranger: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood. I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls" (17:11). In Hebrew, "life" and "souls" there are one word. Even the hunter pours out the blood and covers it with dust (17:13).
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“For the life of the flesh is in the blood. I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life.”
Try it · Did you catch it?
“In Leviticus 17, the ban on eating blood was given to the strangers living among Israel as well as to Israel.”
Is that in Leviticus 17, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
One door for every sacrifice
The chapter opens with a rule about where an animal is killed. "Whatever man there is of the house of Israel who kills a bull, or lamb, or goat in the camp, or who kills it outside the camp, and hasn’t brought it to the door of the Tent of Meeting to offer it as an offering to the LORD" (17:3-4): of him the LORD says, "blood shall be imputed to that man. He has shed blood" (17:4). The reason follows: "that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they sacrifice in the open field, that they may bring them to the LORD, to the door of the Tent of Meeting, to the priest" (17:5). There the priest sprinkles the blood "on the LORD’s altar" (17:6), and "They shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices to the goat idols" (17:7).
Where it leads to Jesus
Apart from shedding of blood
Leviticus 17:11leads toHebrews 9:22
"For the life of the flesh is in the blood. I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls" (17:11). Hebrews says, "According to the law, nearly everything is cleansed with blood, and apart from shedding of blood there is no remission" (Hebrews 9:22). It also says, "it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins" (Hebrews 10:4), and asks, "how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without defect to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Hebrews 9:14). Hebrews doesn't quote 17:11; it speaks of what the law does with blood.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Leviticus 17
That was a taste
The rest of Leviticus 17 is waiting in Favor
- The reason, in the LORD's words
- Away from the altar too
- Pour it out, cover it with dust
- The blood rule, from Noah on
- 5 questions as you read
- 8 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach Leviticus 17 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
נֶפֶשׁnefeshsay NEH-fesh
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "soul, living being, life, self, person". Strong's: "properly, a breathing creature". It comes nine times in this chapter, and the WEB gives it as "soul" (17:10), "life" and "souls" (17:11), "life" (17:14), and "person" (17:12, 17:15). Verse 11 has it three times: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood. I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life" (17:11). Verse 14 has it three times too: "for the life of all flesh is its blood" (17:14). Leviticus uses the word 60 times. God's word to Noah joins it to blood in the same way: "But flesh with its life, that is, its blood, you shall not eat" (Genesis 9:4).
For your group
Leviticus 17 Bible study questions
- 1Israel was to bring every sacrifice to one door, "to the LORD" (17:5), and no more "to the goat idols" (17:7). What pulls your worship in other directions?
- 2The LORD says of the blood on the altar, "I have given it to you" (17:11). What difference does it make that atonement starts with what God gives?
- 3The law reached the hunter out in the field, far from the Tent (17:13). What would it look like to honor God in the ordinary places of your week?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Leviticus 17 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Questions
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Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home