Deuteronomy 15:23

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

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

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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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 →

9: words
9: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
3 nouns
1 preposition
3 particles

Verb forms

תֹאכֵ֑ל 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 9 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 15:23 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Deuteronomy 12:16 Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth as water.
Leviticus 7:26 You shall not eat any blood, whether it is of bird or of animal, in any of your dwellings.
Deuteronomy 12:23 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.
1 Samuel 14:32 and the people flew on the spoil, and took sheep, and oxen, and calves, and killed them on the ground; and the people ate them with the blood.
Ezekiel 33:25 Therefore tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes to your idols, and shed blood: and shall you possess the land?

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 15:23 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

רַ֥ק אֶת דָּמ֖וֹ לֹ֣א תֹאכֵ֑ל עַל הָאָ֥רֶץ תִּשְׁפְּכֶ֖נּוּ כַּמָּֽיִם

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

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Deuteronomy 15:23 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 earth 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 יָת דְמֵהּ לָא תֵיכוּל 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 אַדְמֵיהּ לָא תֵיכְלוּן עַל אַרְעָא תֵישְׁדוּנֵיהּ הֵי כְמַיָא

Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out 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 15:23 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 →

Tyndale Open Study Notes

Tyndale Open Resources

15:23 The blood of an animal was seen as synonymous with its life, the most sacred of God’s creations, so it was sacrilegious to consume it (see 12:16).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

23. See on Deu_12:23.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

Only thou shalt not eat the blood thereof,.... Of the firstling:

thou shalt pour it upon the ground as water; See Gill on Deu 12:16; see Gill on Deu 12:23; see Gill on Deu 12:24.

Next: Deuteronomy Chapter 16

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

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

רק את דמו לא תאכל ONLY THOU SHALT NOT EAT THE BLOOD THEREOF — This prohibition appears to be redundant, since the blood of no animal may be eaten, but it is mentioned, in order that you should not think: since it (the blemished firstborn animal) is something that in every respect is permitted originally it belonged to a forbidden class of animals — for, you see, it was holy and yet it may be slaughtered outside the Temple, and may be eaten without redemption — and consequently you might think that its blood is also permitted, Scripture therefore states, “However thou shalt not eat its blood”.

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 9 words (9 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

The word raq carries the sense “only.” How does it shape the verse?
Deuteronomy 12:16 shares this passage’s theme. How do the two illuminate each other?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
The verb «תֹאכֵ֑ל» is Qal Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Tyndale Open Study Notes and The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 12 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 6 words in this verse.
9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.