What Does Leviticus 17:14 Mean in the King James?

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.

Leviticus 17:14 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The verse names blood as the nephesh, the living soul, of all flesh, holding each creature’s life within its blood.

THE MEANING

This verse speaks of life as embodied: the blood of all flesh is its nephesh, its living soul. The boundary around consuming blood holds the creature’s life within its flesh. The one who eats it is said to be cut off.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that life is an abstract possession, separate from the creature’s body, gives way here: the verse names the blood itself as the nephesh of all flesh.

THE ROOT

נֶפֶשׁ

nephesh

GROWS FROM

נפש

n-p-sh

The living being, self, or life.

The word is nephesh, rendered “life” here and “soul” in other passages; it names the living being itself. A related verb, naphash, means to refresh oneself, joining the living self with its renewal while this verse locates that life in blood.

ALSO GROWS

nephesh chayyah: Living soul; living being.

נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה

Genesis 2:7 calls the formed human a nephesh chayyah, showing nephesh as a living being in its embodied fullness.

naphash: To refresh oneself or rest.

נָפַשׁ

Exodus 23:12 uses this related verb for being refreshed; the shared root links the living self with renewal.

יִכָּרֵת

yikkaret

GROWS FROM

כרת

k-r-t

To cut or sever.

The final clause uses the cutting root for the consequence: the eater is severed. The same verb can describe cutting a covenant, so here the root gives “cut off” the force of a real severance.

ALSO GROWS

yikkaret: Be cut off; be severed.

יִכָּרֵת

This is the form used in the verse, making the consequence a severance.

karat berit: To cut a covenant.

כָּרַת בְּרִית

Genesis 15:18 uses the same verb with covenant; the shared root connects covenant-making through a cut with the severance named here.

THE PATTERN

Blood is treated as the life belonging to flesh, so it is set apart from ordinary consumption.

But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.

Genesis 9:4 · KJVThe verse joins the creature’s life to its blood and sets blood apart from eating.

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.

Deuteronomy 12:23 · KJVIt states directly that blood is life and keeps that life distinct from food.

But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.

Acts 15:20 · KJVThe instruction continues the boundary by naming blood among the things to abstain from.

THE THREAD

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Genesis 2:7 · KJV

Genesis calls the human a nephesh, the same word rendered “life” in Leviticus. The root joins what English often separates as “soul” and “life”: a living being in its embodied fullness.

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