Chapter 17
1 The Lord told Moses
2 to tell Aaron, his sons, and everyone else in Israel:
3 And so, when you sacrifice an animal to ask my blessing, it must not be done out in a field,
4 but in front of the sacred tent. Then a priest can splatter its blood against the bronze altar and send its fat up in smoke with a smell that pleases me.
5 Don’t ever turn from me again and offer sacrifices to goat-demons. This law will never change.
6 Remember! No one in Israel, including foreigners, is to offer a sacrifice anywhere
7 except at the entrance to the sacred tent. If you do, you will no longer belong to my people. The Lord said:
8 I will turn against any of my people who eat blood. This also includes any foreigners living among you.
9 Life is in the blood, and I have given you the blood of animals to sacrifice in place of your own.
10 That’s also why I have forbidden you to eat blood.
11 Even if you should hunt and kill a bird or an animal, you must drain out the blood and cover it with soil.
12 The life of every living creature is in its blood. That’s why I have forbidden you to eat blood and why I have warned you that anyone who does will no longer belong to my people.
13 If you happen to find a dead animal and eat it, you must take a bath and wash your clothes, but you are still unclean until evening.
14 If you don’t take a bath, you will suffer for what you did wrong.