‘“Do not eat any meat with the blood still in it. ‘“Do not practise divination or seek omens.

Then they are to place on it all the utensils used for ministering at the altar, including the firepans, meat forks, shovels and sprinkling bowls. Over it they are to spread a covering of durable leather and put the poles in place.

Quail from the Lord

The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, ‘If only we had meat to eat!

Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, “Give us meat to eat!”

‘Tell the people: “Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The Lord heard you when you wailed, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!’ Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it.

But Moses said, ‘Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, “I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!”

But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague.

Their meat is to be yours, just as the breast of the wave offering and the right thigh are yours.

Nevertheless, you may slaughter your animals in any of your towns and eat as much of the meat as you want, as if it were gazelle or deer, according to the blessing the Lord your God gives you. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it.

When the Lord your God has enlarged your territory as he promised you, and you crave meat and say, ‘I would like some meat,’ then you may eat as much of it as you want.

But be sure you do not eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.

Present your burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord your God, both the meat and the blood. The blood of your sacrifices must be poured beside the altar of the Lord your God, but you may eat the meat.

The pig is also unclean; although it has a divided hoof, it does not chew the cud. You are not to eat their meat or touch their carcasses.

Let no yeast be found in your possession in all your land for seven days. Do not let any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until morning.

This is the share due to the priests from the people who sacrifice a bull or a sheep: the shoulder, the internal organs and the meat from the head.

Gideon went inside, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.

The angel of God said to him, ‘Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.’ And Gideon did so.

Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared.

Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters.

Now it was the practice of the priests that, whenever any of the people offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand while the meat was being boiled

But even before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come and say to the person who was sacrificing, ‘Give the priest some meat to roast; he won’t accept boiled meat from you, but only raw.’

Samuel said to the cook, ‘Bring the piece of meat I gave you, the one I told you to lay aside.’

Then someone said to Saul, ‘Look, the men are sinning against the Lord by eating meat that has blood in it.’ ‘You have broken faith,’ he said. ‘Roll a large stone over here at once.’

Then he said, ‘Go out among the men and tell them, “Each of you bring me your cattle and sheep, and slaughter them here and eat them. Do not sin against the Lord by eating meat with blood still in it.”’ So everyone brought his ox that night and slaughtered it there.

Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?’