Deuteronomy 12:23

Summary

The verse commands firm avoidance of eating blood, grounding this in the identification of blood with nefesh ("life"). It repeats the prohibition, specifying that this "life" must not be eaten together with the meat.

Key words

• cha.Zak ("be strong", H2388I) — qal imperative, addressed to "you" (masculine singular). It functions here as an intensifying command, urging firm resolve rather than mere physical strength.
• vil.Ti ("not", H1115) combined with le. ("to", H9005) and the infinitive 'a.Khol ("to eat", H0398) forms a construction meaning "so as not to eat" — the infinitive expresses the action being avoided, governed by the imperative cha.Zak.
• Dam ("blood", H1818) appears twice (lines 7 and 10), each time with the definite article ha. ("the", H9009), marking it as the specific substance under discussion, not blood in general.
• Na.fesh / Ne.fesh ("life", H5315H) appears twice, both with the definite article. The noun is feminine singular; its repetition links the earlier statement ("the blood is the life") directly to the second prohibition ("you must not eat the life").
• to.Khal ("you must eat", H0398) — qal imperfect, same root as 'a.Khol earlier in the verse, but here marking an ongoing or future-oriented prohibition (with lo' , "not", H3808) rather than an infinitival purpose clause.

What the text says

The verse divides into two parallel movements built on the same verbal root, 'akal (H0398), "to eat." The first movement uses the imperative cha.Zak ("be strong") plus the negative infinitive construction le-vilti 'akhol ("so as not to eat") — a fixed idiom expressing firm avoidance of an action. The object is ha-Dam, "the blood," marked definite.

The causal clause introduced by ki ("for/because", H3588A) supplies the rationale: ha-Dam hu ha-Nafesh, "the blood — it — the life." This is a nominal (verbless) clause: the pronoun hu' ("he/it", H1931) links subject and predicate without a copular verb, a standard Biblical Hebrew construction for identity statements. Both Dam and Nefesh carry the definite article, indicating that this is an equation between two specific, previously established referents rather than a general definition.

The second movement repeats the prohibition using the imperfect verb to.Khal with lo', a common way to express categorical prohibition in legal/instructional Hebrew, distinct from the infinitive construction of the first half. Its object is ha-Nefesh, "the life," now standing in for "the blood" via the preceding identity statement, followed by 'im ha-Basar, "with the meat" — specifying that the restriction concerns consuming blood together with flesh.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ha-Dam hu ha-Nafesh as αἷμα αὐτοῦ ψυχή ("its blood is life"), inserting a possessive pronoun (αὐτοῦ) absent from the Hebrew hu', which functions there as a copula rather than a possessive marker. The Vulgate similarly reads sanguis enim eorum pro anima est ("for their blood is for/instead of the soul"), introducing a plural possessive ("eorum") and the phrase "pro anima," which frames the equation as substitution rather than the direct identity expressed by the Hebrew nominal clause.