Deuteronomy 12:16

16 But you may not take the blood for food, it is to be drained out on the earth like water.

Deuteronomy 12:16 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 12:16

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.

Deuteronomy 12:16 In-Context

14 But in the place marked out by the Lord in one of your tribes, there let your burned offerings be offered, and there do what I have given you orders to do.

15 Only you may put to death animals, such as the gazelle or the roe, for your food in any of your towns, at the desire of your soul, in keeping with the blessing of the Lord your God which he has given you: the unclean and the clean may take of it.

16 But you may not take the blood for food, it is to be drained out on the earth like water.

17 In your towns you are not to take as food the tenth part of your grain, or of your wine or your oil, or the first births of your herds or of your flocks, or anything offered under an oath, or freely offered to the Lord, or given as a lifted offering;

18 But they will be your food before the Lord your God in the place of his selection, where you may make a feast of them, with your son and your daughter, and your man-servant and your woman-servant, and the Levite who is living with you: and you will have joy before the Lord your God in everything to which you put your hand.