Leviticus 17:14

Summary

The verse states that the nefesh ("life", H5315H) of every creature is identical with its dam ("blood", H1818), and on this basis prohibits the people of Israel from eating blood, warning that whoever eats it will be cut off (H3772I).

Key words

• Nefesh ("life/soul", H5315H) — feminine singular construct, appearing three times (positions 2, 8, 22); it identifies the life-force of a creature as bound to its blood, not as a separate entity.
• dam ("blood", H1818) — masculine singular construct, repeated with pronominal suffixes (damo, "its blood") to link grammatically each occurrence of nefesh to the blood of the same creature.
• basar ("flesh", H1320) — masculine singular, used in the phrase kol-basar ("all flesh/any flesh", H3605+H1320) to universalize the statement to every living creature, not only sacrificial animals.
• 'omar ("I have said", H0559) — qal narrative form with the vav-conjunctive (H9001), marking the transition from the general statement about nefesh and blood to the specific command given to the bene Yisra'el ("sons/people of Israel", H1121G+H3478).
• yikkaret ("he will be cut off", H3772I) — niphal imperfect, a passive/reflexive form indicating the consequence falls upon the violator without naming an explicit agent.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the subordinating particle ki ("for/if", H3588A), introducing a causal clause: nefesh kol-basar damo b'nafsho hu — literally "the life of all flesh, its blood is in its life, it [is]." The construct chain nefesh kol-basar ("life of all flesh") ties the noun nefesh directly to kol-basar, while the suffixed damo ("its blood") and b'nafsho ("in its life") repeat the possessive suffix -o ("its", H9023) three times in the clause, reinforcing that blood and life belong to the same referent. The pronoun hu ("it", H1931, masculine) closes this first clause, though nefesh is feminine — the resulting concord is loose, characteristic of this construction rather than a strict grammatical match.

The vav-consecutive on va'omar ("and I said", H0559) shifts from statement to reported speech, introducing the prohibition addressed to bene Yisra'el. The imperfect tokhelu ("you must eat", H0398) negated by lo' ("not", H3808) expresses an ongoing prohibition rather than a single past event. The clause is then restated with nefesh kol-basar damo hi — here the pronoun is hi' ("it", H1931, feminine, position 27), agreeing grammatically with feminine nefesh, in contrast to the earlier hu'. The final clause uses the participle okhelav ("those eating it", H0398), construct plural with suffix, as the subject of the niphal imperfect yikkaret ("will be cut off", H3772I), a passive form that states the consequence without specifying who performs the cutting off.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the causal opening with γάρ ("for") matching Hebrew ki, and translates nefesh as ψυχή ("soul/life") and dam as αἷμα ("blood"), preserving the identification. The Vulgate renders the clause as "anima...in sanguine est" ("the soul...is in the blood"), using "in" where the Hebrew construct and pronoun structure more directly equates nefesh with dam rather than placing one "in" the other; this differs from the LXX's direct equation "αἷμα αὐτοῦ ἐστιν" ("is its blood"). The English versions (BSB, RV1909, SBLIBRE) follow the direct-equation pattern of the LXX ("the life...is its blood") rather than the Vulgate's "in sanguine" phrasing.