What Does Leviticus 17:13 Mean?
And any man of the children of Israel, or of the sojourners among you, who hunts and catches any beast or bird that may be eaten, he shall pour out its blood, and cover it with dust.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten; he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust.THE KEY
Hebrew names hunting and game from one root, yet excludes blood from the meal: taking an animal does not make its life food.
THE MEANING
You see a boundary inside eating: a beast or bird may be taken as food, but its blood is poured out and covered with dust. The flesh becomes nourishment while the blood is returned to the ground, keeping the animal’s life distinct from the meal.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Permission to eat the animal does not make every part available to consume; its blood is explicitly poured out and covered.
THE ROOT
יָצוּד
yatsud
GROWS FROM
צוד
To hunt, pursue, or capture.
“hunteth” in this verse is yatsud. Hebrew places יָצוּד (hunt) beside צֵיד (game), tying the catch to the act of hunting through one root. The verse then draws a boundary: capturing the animal for food does not make its blood part of the meal.
ALSO GROWS
tsayid: Game, prey; the hunted catch.
צֵיד
This noun shares the hunting root, with the weak middle consonant appearing as yod; the phrase links the act of hunting directly to its prey.
matsod: A hunting net or trap.
מָצוֹד
The net is a means of capture, showing the root’s reach from pursuing prey to securing it.
וְשָׁפַךְ
veshafakh
GROWS FROM
שפך
To pour out or spill.
“pour out its blood” in this verse is veshafakh. The blood is deliberately poured out before it is covered with dust. This sequence makes its exclusion from the meal a physical act, not an abstract idea.
ALSO GROWS
shefikhah: Pouring or outpouring.
שְׁפִיכָה
This noun carries the same root into the act of pouring itself, echoing the verse’s deliberate handling of the blood.
nishpakh: Was poured out or spilled.
נִשְׁפַּךְ
This form keeps the focus on what flows out, matching the blood’s movement onto the ground.
וְכִסָּהוּ
vekhissahu
GROWS FROM
כסה
To cover, conceal, or spread over.
“cover it with dust” in this verse is vekhissahu. After the blood is poured out, dust is placed over it. The root makes the final act a concrete covering of the blood, closing the verse with the earth laid over what the eater leaves behind.
ALSO GROWS
kissah: To cover or cover over.
כִּסָּה
This is the verb without its object suffix; here the blood itself is what gets covered.
mikhseh: A covering.
מִכְסֶה
This noun from the same root names a cover placed over something, echoing the dust laid over the blood.
THE PATTERN
Taking an animal for food does not make its blood ordinary food; its life remains separate from its flesh.
But flesh in its living soul, its blood, you shall not eat.Only hold fast, that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the living soul, and you may not eat the living soul with the flesh.But that we write to them to hold off from the stains of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.THE THREAD
For the living soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make a covering for your living souls, for it is the blood that covers the living soul.The preceding line says the flesh’s life is in its blood. This verse turns that statement into a physical distinction between eating the flesh and pouring out the blood.
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