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

GENESIS 9:4KJV
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Genesis 9:4 (KJV)

What does Genesis 9:4 mean?

Genesis 9:4 places a limit on the eating of animal flesh: the blood is not to be eaten with it. The verse identifies the blood with the animal’s life, so the restriction treats the blood as more than an ordinary part of the meat.

God speaks these words to Noah and his sons after the flood. After giving them animals for food in verse 3, God adds a boundary expressed through the picture of flesh still containing its life-blood.

The Hebrew behind Genesis 9:4

  • “life” — נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh): This word can mean life or a living being. Here, the KJV links the animal’s life to its blood, rather than using “life” to mean only an inner part of a person.
  • “blood” — דָּם (dam): This word means blood. Its close connection with “life” gives the food restriction its reason in the verse.

Why Genesis 9:4 matters

  • The permission to eat animals has a stated limit. The “but” at the start of verse 4 connects that limit to the food permission in verse 3.
  • The concern with blood extends beyond food in the surrounding passage. Genesis 9:5–6 turns to the taking of human life and speaks of a reckoning for human blood.

Where else these words appear

“But” Hebrew H389 · used in 22 verses

  • Genesis 7:23 And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.
  • Exodus 12:16 And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.
  • Judges 7:19 So Gideon, and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch; and they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers that were in their hands.