What Does Deuteronomy 12:24 Mean in the King James?
Thou shalt not eat it; thou shalt pour it upon the earth as water.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Blood is poured onto the earth as water because what carries life is not treated as food.
THE MEANING
You see blood leave the meal and be poured onto the earth like water. The nearby verse names blood as life, making the boundary around life visible: it is not consumed as ordinary food.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that whatever can nourish the body is therefore ordinary food; blood carries life and is given a distinct place.
THE ROOT
תִּשְׁפְּכֶנּוּ
tishpekhennu
GROWS FROM
שׁפך
To pour out; also to shed.
“pour” in this verse is tishpekhennu. The verb for pouring can also describe blood being shed, so the verse’s comparison to water has a sharp edge: blood leaves the body and is poured onto the ground. English preserves the action but can hide that this root also names bloodshed.
ALSO GROWS
shofekh dam: One who sheds blood
שֹׁפֵךְ דָּם
Genesis 9:6 uses this root for shedding a person’s blood, showing that the same verb describes blood poured out and liquid poured away.
vayyishpekhu: They poured out
וַיִּשְׁפְּכוּ
In 1 Samuel 7:6 this form describes water being poured out, echoing the concrete image in this verse.
THE PATTERN
Blood is kept outside ordinary consumption because it carries life.
But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.THE THREAD
Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood is the life; and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh.Both verses use the root אָכַל (akhal, eat): the command not to eat blood in verse 23 continues as “Thou shalt not eat it” here. Verse 23 calls life נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, living soul); verse 24 shows the blood poured onto the earth.
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