⁴ However, you must not eat meat with its lifeblood in it.^(A)

¹⁷ This is a permanent statute^(A) throughout your generations, wherever you live: you must not eat any fat or any blood.”^(B)

Eating Blood and Carcasses Prohibited

¹⁰ “Anyone from the house of Israel or from the aliens who reside among them who eats any blood,^(A) I will turn^[a] against that person who eats blood and cut him off from his people. ¹¹ For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have appointed it to you to make atonement on the altar for^[b] your lives, since it is the lifeblood that makes atonement.^{(B) 12} Therefore I say to the Israelites: None of you and no alien who resides among you may eat blood.

³² they rushed to the plunder,^(A) took sheep, goats, cattle, and calves, slaughtered them on the ground, and ate meat with the blood still in it. ³³ Some reported to Saul, “Look, the troops are sinning against the Lord by eating meat with the blood still in it.”^(B)

Saul said, “You have been unfaithful. Roll a large stone over here at once.” ³⁴ He then said, “Go among the troops and say to them, ‘Let each man bring me his ox or his sheep. Do the slaughtering here and then you can eat. Don’t sin against the Lord by eating meat with the blood in it.’” So every one of the troops brought his ox that night and slaughtered it there. ³⁵ Then Saul built an altar to the Lord; it was the first time he had built an altar to the Lord.^(C)

²⁵ Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says: You eat meat with blood in it,^(A) you look to your idols, and you shed blood. Should you then receive possession of the land?