New English Translation
Genesis 9:4
4But you must not eat meat with its life (that is, its blood) in it.
Genesis 9:4 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
- New International Version (NIV)“But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.
- English Standard Version (ESV)But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
- New King James Version (NKJV)But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
Context of Genesis 9:4
2Every living creature of the earth and every bird of the sky will be terrified of you. Everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea are under your authority. 3You may eat any moving thing that lives. As I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. But you must not eat meat with its life (that is, its blood) in it. 5For your lifeblood I will surely exact punishment, from every living creature I will exact punishment. From each person I will exact punishment for the life of the individual since the man was his relative. 6“Whoever sheds human blood, by other humans must his blood be shed; for in God’s image God has made humankind.”
Read all of Genesis 9Genesis 9:4 word by word
אַךְ־בָּשָׂ֕ר בְּנַפְשׁ֥וֹ דָמ֖וֹ לֹ֥א תֹאכֵֽלוּ׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Genesis 9:4
- Leviticus 3:17This is a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all the places where you live: You must never eat any fat or any blood.’”
- Leviticus 7:26And you must not eat any blood of the birds or the domesticated land animals in any of the places where you live.
- Leviticus 17:10“‘Any man from the house of Israel or from the foreigners who reside in their 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,
- Leviticus 19:26“‘You must not eat anything with the blood still in it. You must not practice either divination or soothsaying.
- Deuteronomy 12:16However, you must not eat blood – pour it out on the ground like water.
- Deuteronomy 14:21You may not eat any corpse, though you may give it to the resident foreigner who is living in your villages and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. You are a people holy to the Lord your God. Do not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
- Deuteronomy 15:23However, you must not eat its blood; you must pour it out on the ground like water.
- 1 Samuel 14:34Then Saul said, “Scatter out among the army and say to them, ‘Each of you bring to me your ox and sheep and slaughter them in this spot and eat. But don’t sin against the Lord by eating the blood.” So that night each one brought his ox and slaughtered it there.
- Acts 15:20but that we should write them a letter telling them to abstain from things defiled by idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled and from blood.
- 1 Timothy 4:4For every creation of God is good and no food is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.
Commentaries on Genesis 9:4
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 4But 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…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 1-7Verses 1-7 - The Blessing of Noah 2. מורא môrā' “fear, reverence, awful deed.” חת chat “dread, breaking of the courage.” Noah is saved from the deluge. His life is twice given to him by God. He had found grace in the sight of the Lord, and now he and his family have been graciously accepted when they approached the Lord with burnt-offerings. In him, therefore, the race of man is to be begun anew. Accordingly, as at the beginning, the Lord proceeds to…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 4-7Verses 4-7 The main reason of forbidding the eating of blood, doubtless was because the shedding of blood in sacrifices was to keep the worshippers in mind of the great atonement; yet it seems intended also to check cruelty, lest men, being used to shed and feed upon the blood of animals, should grow unfeeling to them, and be less shocked at the idea of shedding human blood. Man must not take away his own life. Our lives are God's, and we must only give…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 4God gives an important restriction. Blood represents life (it stands for life), so it had to be drained from an animal before its meat could be eaten (see Leviticus 3:17; 7:26–27; 17:10–14; Deuteronomy 12:16, 23). The Law of Moses also forbade eating animals that died naturally, because their blood had not been drained (Deuteronomy 14:21). God provided animal blood to atone for human sin (Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 44. 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.Read the comment
Topics related to Genesis 9:4
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Genesis 9
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Luther’s Commentary on Selected Bible Passages
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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