Leviticus 19:26

Easy-to-Read Version

"You must not eat any meat with blood still in it. "You must not try to use different kinds of magic to tell the future.

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
You shall not eat anything with the blood: neither shall you use enchantments, nor practice sorcery.

King James Version
Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times.

Lexham English Bible
"‘You must not eat anything with the blood; you shall not practice divination, nor shall you interpret signs.

New Century Version
"‘You must not eat anything with the blood in it. "‘You must not try to tell the future by signs or black magic.

New English Translation
"‘You must not eat anything with the blood still in it. You must not practice either divination or soothsaying.

Amplified Bible
'You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor practice divination [using omens or witchcraft] or soothsaying.

New American Standard Bible
'You shall not eat any meat with the blood. You shall not practice divination nor soothsaying.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Ye shal not eat the flesh with the blood, ye shall not vse witchcraft, nor obserue times.

Legacy Standard Bible
‘You shall not eat anything with the blood nor interpret omens or soothsaying.

Contemporary English Version
Don't eat the blood of any animal. Don't practice any kind of witchcraft.

Complete Jewish Bible
"‘Do not eat anything with blood. Do not practice divination or fortune-telling.

Darby Translation
Ye shall eat nothing with the blood.—Ye shall not practise enchantment, nor use auguries.

English Standard Version
"You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. You shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes.

George Lamsa Translation
You shall not eat blood; you shall not practice divination with birds, nor shall you consult an oracle.

Good News Translation
"Do not eat any meat with blood still in it. Do not practice any kind of magic.

Christian Standard Bible®
“You are not to eat anything with blood in it. You are not to practice divination or witchcraft.

Literal Translation
You shall not eat with the blood; you shall not divine, nor conjure spirits .

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Ye shal eate nothinge wt bloude. Ye shall not regarde ye foules cryenge, ner chose out dayes.

American Standard Version
Ye shall not eat anything with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantments, nor practise augury.

Bible in Basic English
Nothing may be used for food with its blood in it; you may not make use of strange arts, or go in search of signs and wonders.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Ye shall not eate vpon blood, neither shall ye vse witchcraft, nor obserue tymes.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Ye shall not eat with the blood; neither shall ye practise divination nor soothsaying.

King James Version (1611)
Ye shall not eate any thing with the blood, neither shall ye vse inchantment, nor obserue times.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Eat not on the mountains, nor shall ye employ auguries, nor divine by inspection of birds.

English Revised Version
Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantments, nor practise augury.

Berean Standard Bible
You must not eat anything with blood still in it. You must not practice divination or sorcery.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Ye schulen not ete fleisch with blood. Ye schulen not make veyn diuynyng, nether ye schulen kepe dremes;

Young's Literal Translation
`Ye do not eat with the blood; ye do not enchant, nor observe clouds.

Update Bible Version
You shall not eat anything with the blood: neither shall you use magic, nor interpret omens.

Webster's Bible Translation
Ye shall not eat [any thing] with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times.

World English Bible
You shall not eat anything with the blood: neither shall you use enchantments, nor practice sorcery.

New King James Version
"You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor shall you practice divination or soothsaying.

New Living Translation
"Do not eat meat that has not been drained of its blood. "Do not practice fortune-telling or witchcraft.

New Life Bible
‘Do not eat anything with the blood in it. Do not tell the future or do witchcraft.

New Revised Standard
You shall not eat anything with its blood. You shall not practice augury or witchcraft.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Ye shall eat nothing with the blood thereof, - Ye shall not practise divination neither shall ye use magic.

Douay-Rheims Bible
You shall not eat with blood. You shall not divine nor observe dreams.

Revised Standard Version
"You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. You shall not practice augury or witchcraft.

THE MESSAGE
"Don't eat meat with blood in it. "Don't practice divination or sorcery.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
'You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor practice divination or soothsaying.

Contextual Overview

¹⁹ "You must obey my laws. You must not let your animals mate with animals of a different kind. You must not sow your field with two kinds of seed. You must not wear clothing made from two kinds of material mixed together. ²⁰ "It may happen that a man has sexual relations with a woman who is the slave of another man. But this slave woman has not been bought or given her freedom. If this happens, there must be punishment. But they will not be put to death because the woman was not free. ²¹ The man must bring his guilt offering to the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent. He must bring a ram for a guilt offering. ²² The priest will make him pure by offering the ram as a guilt offering before the Lord . The offering is for the man's sins, which will then be forgiven. ²³ "In the future, when you enter your country, you will plant many kinds of trees for food. After planting a tree, you must wait three years before you can use any of the fruit from that tree. You must not use that fruit. ²⁴ In the fourth year, the fruit from that tree will belong to the Lord , a holy offering of praise to him. ²⁵ Then, in the fifth year, you can eat the fruit from that tree. And the tree will produce more and more fruit for you. I am the Lord your God. ²⁶ "You must not eat any meat with blood still in it. "You must not try to use different kinds of magic to tell the future. ²⁷ "You must not round off the hair that grows on the side of your face. You must not cut your beard that grows on the side of your face. ²⁸ You must not cut your body as a way to remember the dead. You must not make any tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord .

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

with the blood: Leviticus 3:17, Leviticus 7:26, Leviticus 17:10-14, Deuteronomy 12:23

use: Exodus 7:11, Exodus 8:7, 1 Samuel 15:23, Jeremiah 10:2, Daniel 2:10, Malachi 3:5

nor: Deuteronomy 18:10-14, 2 Kings 17:17, 2 Kings 21:6, 2 Chronicles 33:6

Reciprocal: Genesis 9:4 - the life Genesis 44:5 - divineth Exodus 22:18 - General Leviticus 19:31 - General Leviticus 20:6 - familiar 1 Samuel 14:32 - did eat Ezekiel 33:25 - Ye eat

Cross-References

Genesis 19:17
So after the two men brought Lot and his family out of the city, one of the men said, "Now run to save your life! Don't look back at the city, and don't stop anywhere in the valley. Run until you are in the mountains. If you stop, you will be destroyed with the city!"

Genesis 19:31
One day the older daughter said to the younger, "Everywhere on the earth, men and women marry and have a family. But our father is old, and there are no men around here to give us children.

Genesis 19:32
So let's get our father drunk with wine. Then we can have sex with him. That way we can use our father to keep our family alive!"

Proverbs 14:14
Evil people will be paid back for the wrong they do, and good people will be rewarded for the good they do.

Hebrews 10:38
The person who is right with me will live by trusting in me. But I will not be pleased with the one who turns back in fear."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Ye shall not eat [anything] with the blood,.... Or upon, over, or by the blood s, for this law seems different from that in Genesis 9:4, and from those in Leviticus 3:17; and is variously interpreted by the Jewish writers; some of not eating flesh, the blood not being rightly let out of it, as not being thoroughly cleared of it t, and so comes under the notion of things strangled; others of not eating of sacrifices until the blood stands in the basin u; and others of not eating any flesh whose blood is not sprinkled on the altar, if near the holy place w: some think it refers to the custom of murderers who eat over the person slain, that the avengers of the slain may not take vengeance on them, supposing something superstitious in it, because of what follows x; though it rather has respect to an idolatrous practice of the Zabians, as Maimonides y informs us, who took blood to be the food of devils, and who used to take the blood of a slain beast and put it in a vessel, or in a hole dug in the earth, and eat the flesh sitting round about the blood; fancying by this means they had communion with devils, and contracted friendship and familiarity with them, whereby they might get knowledge of future things; Leviticus 3:17- ::

neither shall ye use enchantment; soothsaying or divination by various creatures, as by the weasel, birds, or fishes, as the Talmudists z; or rather by serpents, as the word used is thought to have the signification of; or by any odd accidents, as a man's food falling out of his mouth, or his staff out of his hand, or his son calling after him behind, or a crow cawing to him, or a hart passing by him, or a serpent on his right hand and a fox on his left, or one says, do not begin (any work) tomorrow, it is the new moon, or the going out of the sabbath a:

nor observe times; saying, such a day is a lucky day to begin any business, or such an hour an unlucky hour to go out in, as Jarchi, taking the word to have the signification of times, days, and hours, as our version and others; but Aben Ezra derives it from a word which signifies a cloud, and it is well known, he says, that soothsayers view and consult the clouds, their likeness and motion; but some of the ancient writers, as Gersom observes, derive it from a word which signifies an eye, and suppose that such persons are intended who hold the eyes of people, cast a mist before them, or use some juggling tricks whereby they deceive their sight.

s על הדם "super sanguine", Montanus, Munster; "super sanguinem", Fagius. t Joseph. Antiqu. l. 6. c. 6. sect. 4. T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 63. 1. u Targum Jon. in loc. T. Bab. Sanhedrin, ib. w Aben Ezra in loc. x Baal Hatturim in loc. y Moreh Nevochim, par. 3. c. 46. z T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 66. 1. Jarchi in loc. a Kimchi, Sepher Shorash. rad. נחש.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Certain pagan customs, several of them connected with magic, are here grouped together. The prohibition to eat anything with the blood may indeed refer to the eating of meat which had not been properly bled in slaughtering (Leviticus 7:26; Leviticus 17:10, etc.): but it is not improbable that there may be a special reference to some sort of magical or idolatrous rites. Compare Ezekiel 33:25.

Leviticus 19:26

Observe times - It is not clear whether the original word refers to the fancied distinction between lucky and unlucky days, to some mode of drawing omens from the clouds, or to the exercise of “the evil eye.”

Leviticus 19:27

Round the corners of your heads - This may allude to such a custom as that of the Arabs described by Herodotus. They used to show honor to their deity Orotal by cutting the hair away from the temples in a circular form. Compare the margin reference.

Mar the corners of thy beard - It has been conjectured that this also relates to a custom which existed among the Arabs, but we are not informed that it had any idolatrous or magical association. As the same, or very similar customs, are mentioned in Leviticus 21:5, and in Deuteronomy 14:1, as well as here, it would appear that they may have been signs of mourning.

Leviticus 19:28

Cuttings in your flesh for the dead - Compare the margin reference. Among the excitable races of the East this custom appears to have been very common.

Print any marks - Tattooing was probably practiced in ancient Egypt, as it is now by the lower classes of the modern Egyptians, and was connected with superstitious notions. Any voluntary disfigurement of the person was in itself an outrage upon God’s workmanship, and might well form the subject of a law.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Leviticus 19:26. Neither shall ye use enchantment — לא תנחשו lo thenachashu. Conjecture itself can do little towards a proper explanation of the terms used in this verse. נחש nachash; Genesis 3:1, we translate serpent, and with very little propriety; but though the word may not signify a serpent in that place, it has that signification in others. Possibly, therefore, the superstition here prohibited may be what the Greeks called Ophiomanteia, or divination by serpents.

Nor observe times. — ולא תעוננו velo teonenu, ye shall not divine by clouds, which was also a superstition much in practice among the heathens, as well as divination by the flight of birds. What these prohibitions may particularly refer to, we know not. Genesis 41:8.