Leviticus 17:11

Summary

The verse states that the life-force of a creature's flesh resides in its blood, and that this blood has been designated by divine decree to be placed on the altar for the atonement of the people. A second clause restates the principle: it is specifically the blood, acting through the life it carries, that performs this atonement.

Key words

• Nefesh ("life of", H5315H) — feminine singular construct, appearing twice (lines 2 and 27); it links grammatically to "the flesh" and later to "the blood," forming the conceptual chain flesh→life→blood.
• Dam ("blood", H1818) — masculine singular, repeated in both halves of the verse (lines 6 and 24), anchoring the parallel structure between the two כִּי-clauses.
• netaTi ("I have given", H5414G) — qal perfect, 1st person, reinforced by the independent pronoun 'ani ("I", H0589) immediately before it; the perfect marks a completed, authoritative act.
• lekhaPer ("to make atonement", H3722A) — piel infinitive construct, expressing purpose ("in order to atone"), dependent on the giving of the blood.
• yekhaPer ("it makes atonement", H3722A) — piel imperfect, 3rd masculine singular, describing an ongoing or general-truth action, contrasting with the completed perfect netaTi.

What the text says

The verse is built as two parallel ki ("for/that", H3588A) clauses. The first (lines 1-7) is a nominal sentence: Nefesh ha-basar ("the life of the flesh") is predicated as being ba-dam hi' ("it is in the blood"), using the pronoun hi' (H1931) to close the clause emphatically. The second ki-clause (lines 22-28) mirrors this structure but reverses subject and predicate: ha-dam hu' ("the blood — it") is now the subject, and ba-nefesh yekhaPer ("by the life it atones") states the function of that blood, using the imperfect aspect to indicate a standing, repeated action rather than a single event.

Between these two statements sits the divine declaration (lines 8-21): va-'ani netaTi ("and I, I have given"), where the independent pronoun 'ani placed before the perfect verb gives grammatical emphasis to the speaker as agent. The object suffix on netaTiv ("I have given it") refers back to ha-dam. The purpose is expressed through the piel infinitive lekhaPer, followed by nafshoteikhem — the plural construct form of nefesh (H5315G) meaning "your lives/selves" — showing that the same root nefesh used for the animal's life is applied collectively to the people's lives receiving atonement.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders nefesh ha-basar ("the life of the flesh") as "ψυχὴ πάσης σαρκὸς" ("the life of all flesh"), adding πάσης ("all"), a generalizing word absent from the Hebrew construct phrase. The Vulgate's final clause, "sanguis pro animae piaculo sit" ("let the blood be for the expiation of the soul"), restructures the closing imperfect yekhaPer into a jussive statement about blood's designated role, differing from the Hebrew's direct instrumental construction "ba-nefesh yekhaPer" ("by the life it atones"). The Vulgate's "ut...expietis" ("that you may atone") also shifts the grammatical subject of the atoning act toward the people themselves, where the Hebrew infinitive lekhaPer leaves the agent of atonement unspecified beyond the blood given by God.