³² That evening they rushed for the battle plunder and butchered the sheep, goats, cattle, and calves, but they ate them without draining the blood.

¹⁹ Why haven’t you obeyed the Lord? Why did you rush for the plunder and do what was evil in the Lord’s sight?”

¹⁷ “You must never eat any fat or blood. This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed from generation to generation, wherever you live.”

¹⁶ But you must not consume the blood. You must pour it out on the ground like water.

²⁶ “Do not eat meat that has not been drained of its blood.

“Do not practice fortune-telling or witchcraft.

¹⁰ “And if any native Israelite or foreigner living among you eats or drinks blood in any form, I will turn against that person and cut him off from the community of your people, ¹¹ for the life of the body is in its blood. I have given you the blood on the altar to purify you, making you right with the Lord.^[a] It is the blood, given in exchange for a life, that makes purification possible. ¹² That is why I have said to the people of Israel, ‘You must never eat or drink blood—neither you nor the foreigners living among you.’

¹³ “And if any native Israelite or foreigner living among you goes hunting and kills an animal or bird that is approved for eating, he must drain its blood and cover it with earth. ¹⁴ The life of every creature is in its blood. That is why I have said to the people of Israel, ‘You must never eat or drink blood, for the life of any creature is in its blood.’ So whoever consumes blood will be cut off from the community.

⁴ But you must never eat any meat that still has the lifeblood in it.

²⁰ Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from eating food offered to idols, from sexual immorality, from eating the meat of strangled animals, and from consuming blood.

²³ But never consume the blood, for the blood is the life, and you must not consume the lifeblood with the meat. ²⁴ Instead, pour out the blood on the ground like water.