Deuteronomy 12:16

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth as water.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Download a study sheet

One document with this verse’s original text, its word-by-word gloss line, the meaning frame, cross-references with their text, attributed commentary, and full source and license credits — printable, and it pastes into notes with its structure intact.

This verse Autodidact and up

Study sheet (.html) Plain text (.txt)

A passage Seminary Student

Up to 50 verses in one chapter. A passage sheet keeps up to 6 commentary sources and 12 cross-references per verse, in the order this page ranks them, and says so on the sheet whenever that leaves anything out. Ask for a single verse and you get the Autodidact verse sheet above.

Everything on this page stays free to read, with no account — the sheet is a download of what is already on screen, not access to it.

Want to remove ads? Support Godless Engineer

Word by word

More ways to search: Search by grammar → Find every occurrence → Compare this word →

Practice this passage: Drill this verse → Learn its vocabulary →

רַ֥ק

raq

H7535

“only”

Particle, Accusative

Appears 109× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 6:5

Full BDB Definition

Origin: the same as H7534 as a noun

TWOT: 2218a

only, altogether, surely - only - only, nought but, altogether (in limitation) - save, except (after a negative) - only, altogether, surely (with an affirmative) - if only, provided only (prefixed for emphasis) - only, exclusively (for emphasis)

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

8: words
8: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
3 nouns
1 preposition
2 particles

Verb forms

תֹאכֵ֑לוּ Qal · Imperfect
תִּשְׁפְּכֶ֖נּוּ Qal · Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 17 words from the Hebrew and 17 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the same length.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 8 Hebrew tokens and 12 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Deuteronomy 12:16 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Genesis 9:4 But flesh with the life of it, the blood of it, you shall not eat.
Deuteronomy 15:23 Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it out on the ground as water.
Deuteronomy 12:23–24 Only be sure that you don't eat the blood: for the blood is the life; and you shall not eat the life with the flesh.
Acts 15:29 that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality, from which if you keep yourselves, it will be well with you. Farewell."
Leviticus 7:26–27 You shall not eat any blood, whether it is of bird or of animal, in any of your dwellings.
Leviticus 17:10–13 "'Any man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who live as foreigners among them, who eats any kind of blood, I will set my face against that soul who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people.
1 Timothy 4:4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with thanksgiving.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Deuteronomy 12:16 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

רַ֥ק הַדָּ֖ם לֹ֣א תֹאכֵ֑לוּ עַל הָאָ֥רֶץ תִּשְׁפְּכֶ֖נּוּ כַּמָּֽיִם

Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth as water.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Deuteronomy 12:16 Septuagint · lemma form

πλήν ὁ αἷμα οὐ ἐσθίω ἐπί ὁ γῆ ἐκχέω αὐτός ὡς ὕδωρ

Only you⌃ shall not eat the blood; you⌃ shall pour it out on the ground as water.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

לְחוֹד דְמָא לָא תֵיכְלוּן עַל אַרְעָא תִשְׁדִנֵהּ כְּמַיָא

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

לְחוֹד בְּאַדְמָא הֲווֹ זְהִירִין עַל אַרְעָא תֵּישְׁדוּנֵיהּ הֵי כְּמוֹי

Only be careful to pour out the blood upon the ground like water.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Deuteronomy 12:16 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

BLOOD PROHIBITED. (Deu 12:16-25)

ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it upon the earth as water--The prohibition against eating or drinking blood as an unnatural custom accompanied the announcement of the divine grant of animal flesh for food (Gen 9:4), and the prohibition was repeatedly renewed by Moses with reference to the great objects of the law (Lev 17:12), the prevention of idolatry, and the consecration of the sacrificial blood to God. In regard, however, to the blood of animals slain for food, it might be shed without ceremony and poured on the ground as a common thing like water--only for the sake of decency, as well as for preventing all risk of idolatry, it was to be covered over with earth (Lev 17:13), in opposition to the practice of heathen sportsmen, who left it exposed as an offering to the god of the chase.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Deu 12:16 Only ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it upon the earth as water.

Ver. 16. Only ye shall not eat.] {See Trapp on "Gen 9:4"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Tyndale Open Study Notes

Tyndale Open Resources

12:16 The prohibition against consuming blood pertained both to sacrificial animals and to those slain for meat. Because it represented life, blood was sacred and was to be rendered only to God. This principle is inherent in creation and preceded the law (Gen 4:10-11; 9:4-6; Lev 17:11). See also study note on Lev 7:26-27.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(16) Ye shall pour it upon the earth.—This act was a necessary part of every slaughter of an animal for food. The blood, which is the life, must be poured upon the earth for God, whether the victim was consigned to the altar or not. It was a continual reminder of the necessity for the sacrifice of the death of Christ, to be continued until He should come. Thus the act was, in a sense, sacramental.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

Only ye shall not eat the blood,.... All manner of blood being forbidden, of fowl or of beasts, whether slain for sacrifice or for common food:

ye shall pour it out upon the earth as water; which cannot be gathered up again for use, but is swallowed up in the earth.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Water, without any ceremony. It was afterwards to be covered, Leviticus xvii. 13.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

16. Ye shall not eat the blood — These directions are not to be deemed trivial or unimportant. “Even the inviolability of human life received support from the sanctity of blood. To taste the minutest portion of animal blood was something horrible; even the blood of such animals as were allowed for eating, but not for sacrifice, was to be poured like water upon the ground and covered over with earth.” — EWALD, Antiquities of Israel, English translation, p. 38.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

רק הדם לא תאכלו ONLY YE SHALL NOT EAT THE BLOOD — Although I have told you that there is no sprinkling of blood on the altar in its case (it being blemished and thus unfit for the altar), you shall nevertheless not eat it.

תשפכנו כמים YE SHALL POUR IT [UPON THE EARTH] AS WATER — This latter word is intended to tell you that although they are compared to these חיות, yet it (the blood) requires no covering with dust as prescribed in the case of these חיות in Leviticus 17:13 (Sifrei Devarim 71:15; Chullin 84a). Another explanation is that the word כמים is intended to suggest: It is like water in so far as to make seed (food) receptive to uncleanness just as water does (cf. Leviticus 11:38) (Sifrei Devarim 71:15; Chullin 35b).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Deuteronomy, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 8 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is raq (“only”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “only” (raq) shape what this verse is saying?
How does Genesis 9:4, which shares this passage’s theme, read alongside this verse?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
«תֹאכֵ֑לוּ» is a Qal Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Jamieson, Fausset & Brown and Trapp's Complete Commentary read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 8 Hebrew ↔ 12 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 4 words in this verse.
8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 8 words in this verse.