Leviticus 17:14

Lev 17:14 For [it is] the life of all flesh; the blood of it [is] for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh [is] the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.

Ver. 14. Is the blood,] i.e., Is in the blood, and goeth out together with it.

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.

Or, living creature.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 14. Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh] Independently of the moral reasons given above, we may add,

1. That blood, being highly alkalescent, especially in hot climates, is subject to speedy putrefaction.

2. That it affords a gross nutriment, being very difficult of digestion, so much so that bull's blood was used in ancient times as poison, "Its extreme viscidity rendering it totally indigestible by the powers of the human stomach."

3. It is allowed that when blood was used in this country in great quantities, the scurvy was more frequent than at other times.

4. It appears from history that those nations who lived most on it were very fierce, savage, and barbarous, such as the Scythians, Tartars, Arabs of the desert, the Scandinavians, &c., &c., some of whom drank the blood of their enemies, making cups of their sculls!

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(14) For it is the life of all flesh . . . —Better, for the soul of all flesh is its blood, in, or through, its soul, that is, the sacredness of the blood arises from the fact that it contains the vital principle of all animal life. Or this clause may be rendered, for the life of all flesh is its blood in, or during, its life, that is, the life of all creatures consists in its blood; but only as long as the blood contains this life, for when it is dried up, or coagulated, the life has passed away from it.

For the life of all flesh.—Better, for the soul of all flesh (see Lev_17:11), that is, even of those wild animals which, in contradistinction to the sacrificial quadrupeds, must not be offered upon the altar, the blood constitutes the vital principle.

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

For it is the life of all flesh,.... Of every animal:

the blood of it is for the life thereof; for the production, preservation, and continuance of life; that on which life depends, as Jarchi observes:

therefore I said unto the children of Israel, ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh; of beasts or birds, whose flesh was fit for food; but their blood was not to be eaten, for the reasons before given:

for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof; which is repeated, that it might be observed and taken notice of, as that in which the force of the reason lay for giving this law:

whosoever eateth it shall be cut off; by death, whether he be an Israelite or a proselyte of righteousness; wherefore if this law was now in force, its penalty also would be continued, whereas it is not, and which shows the abrogation of it. Also See Gill on Lev 17:4.

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

the life of each creature is its blood

This means that the blood is enables the creature to be alive. The full meaning of this statement can be made clear. AT: "each creature is able to live because of its blood" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

Whoever eats it must be cut off

A person being excluded from his community is spoken of as if he had been cut off from his people, as one would cut a piece of cloth or cut a branch from a tree. This can be translated in active form. AT: "Whoever eats blood may no longer live among his people" or "You must separate from his people anyone who eats blood" (See: Metaphor and Active or Passive)

translationWords

creature

cut off

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

דמו בנפשו הוא means its blood represents its life (במקום הנפש), in as much as its life is depending on it.

כי נפש כל בשר דמו הוא means the life is (is identical with) the blood; דם and בשר are masculine, נפש is feminine.

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.

THE BLOOD THEREOF IS ‘B’NAFSHO’ (ALL ONE WITH THE LIFE THEREOF). “Its blood represents its life, since life is dependent upon the blood.” This is Rashi’s language. But it is not correct. Rather, it is possible to explain that the word b’nafsho here means “in its body,” Scripture thus stating, “for as to the life of all flesh, it is the blood in its body.” Similarly [we find the word nefesh meaning “body” in these verses]: ‘Nafsho’ (his person) was laid in iron; seventy ‘nefesh’ (persons); he [the Nazirite] shall not come near to a dead ‘nefesh,’ meaning “a body,” since “the body” of anyone that is possessed of a nefesh (soul) is also called nefesh.In my opinion Scripture mentioned three expressions with reference to blood, which constitute but one reason. First it stated, For the life of the flesh is in the blood. Then it changed and said [in Verse 14 before us], For as to the life of all flesh, the blood thereof is all one with the life thereof, meaning to say that the blood is the life, and the life is in the blood, as both are mixed together, similarly to wine when diluted with water, in which case the water is in the wine and the wine in the water, and each one is “in” the other. Afterwards it explained [in the second half of Verse 14 before us, stating for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof], that the blood is the very life, meaning to say that both have become one inseparable substance, so that you can never find blood without life nor life without blood, as is known of the air which originates in the heart, that it is the hyly from which proceed all dispositions [of man], supplying the substance which gives nutrition and makes blood, and it is the blood which in turn creates it and sustains it. [The relationship between life and blood is thus] like that of matter and form in all physical creatures, where the one cannot be found without the other. Now our Rabbis interpreted the three punishments of excision which Scripture mentioned with reference to blood in the following way: “One verse prohibits the eating of that blood with which life escapes [when cutting the throat of the offering, since it has been given for atonement upon the altar]; one verse prohibits the eating of blood which escapes when slaughtering [an ordinary, unconsecrated animal], and one verse prohibits the eating of blood, that [of a fowl or wild animal, which when slaughtered] must be covered.” This saying of the Rabbis explains why the punishment of excision was mentioned three times, but the reason for the different Scriptural expressions concerning the life and the blood [of the animal] is as I have explained.

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.