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Commentary on Genesis 9 verses 1–7
We read, in the close of the foregoing chapter, the very kind things which God said in his heart, concerning the remnant of mankind which was now left to be the seed of a new world. Now here we have these kind things spoken to them. In general, God blessed Noah and his sons (Gen 9:1), that is, he assured them of his good-will to them and his gracious intentions concerning them. This follows from what he said in his heart. Note, All God's promises of good flow from his purposes of love and the counsels of his own will. See Eph 1:11, Eph 3:11, and compare Jer 29:11. I know the thoughts that I think towards you. We read (Gen 8:20) how Noah blessed God, by his altar and sacrifice. Now here we find God blessing Noah. Note, God will graciously bless (that is, do well for) those who sincerely bless (that is, speak well of) him. Those that are truly thankful for the mercies they have received take the readiest way to have them confirmed and continued to them.
Now here we have the Magna Charta - the great charter of this new kingdom of nature which was now to be erected, and incorporated, the former charter having been forfeited and seized.
I. The grants of this charter are kind and gracious to men. Here is,
1.A grant of lands of vast extent, and a promise of a great increase of men to occupy and enjoy them,. The first blessing is here renewed: Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth (Gen 9:1), and repeated (Gen 9:7), for the race of mankind was, as it were, to begin again. Now, (1.) God sets the whole earth before them, tells them it is all their own, while it remains, to them and their heirs. Note, The earth God has given to the children of men, for a possession and habitation, Psa 115:16. Though it is not a paradise, but a wilderness rather; yet it is better than we deserve. Blessed be God, it is not hell. (2.) He gives them a blessing, by the force and virtue of which mankind should be both multiplied and perpetuated upon earth, so that in a little time all the habitable parts of the earth should be more or less inhabited; and, though one generation should pass away, yet another generation should come, while the world stands, so that the stream of the human race should be supplied with a constant succession, and run parallel with the current of time, till both should be delivered up together into the ocean of eternity. Though death should still reign, and the Lord would still be known by his judgments, yet the earth should never again be dispeopled as now it was, but still replenished, Act 17:24-26.
2.A grant of power over the inferior creatures, Gen 9:2. He grants, (1.) A title to them: Into your hands they are delivered, for your use and benefit. (2.) A dominion over them, without which the title would avail little: The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast. This revives a former grant (Gen 1:28), only with this difference, that man in innocence ruled by love, fallen man rules by fear. Now this grant remains in force, and thus far we have still the benefit of it, [1.] That those creatures which are any way useful to us are reclaimed, and we use them either for service or food, or both, as they are capable. The horse and ox patiently submit to the bridle and yoke, and the sheep is dumb both before the shearer and before the butcher; for the fear and dread of man are upon them. [2.] Those creatures that are any way hurtful to us are restrained, so that, though now and then man may be hurt by some of them, they do not combine together to rise up in rebellion against man, else God could by these destroy the world as effectually as he did by a deluge; it is one of God's sore judgments, Eze 14:21. What is it that keeps wolves out of our towns, and lions out of our streets, and confines them to the wilderness, but this fear and dread? Nay, some have been tamed, Jam 3:7.
3.A grant of maintenance and subsistence: Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you, Gen 9:3. Hitherto, most think, man had been confined to feed only upon the products of the earth, fruits, herbs, and roots, and all sorts of corn and milk; so was the first grant, Gen 1:29. But the flood having perhaps washed away much of the virtue of the earth, and so rendered its fruits less pleasing and less nourishing, God now enlarged the grant, and allowed man to eat flesh, which perhaps man himself never thought of, till now that God directed him to it, nor had any more desire to than a sheep has to suck blood like a wolf. But now man is allowed to feed upon flesh, as freely and safely as upon the green herb. Now here see, (1.) That God is a good master, and provides, not only that we may live, but that we may live comfortably, in his service; not for necessity only, but for delight. (2.) That every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, Ti1 4:4. Afterwards some meats that were proper enough for food were prohibited by the ceremonial law; but from the beginning, it seems, it was not so, and therefore is not so under the gospel.
II. The precepts and provisos of this character are no less kind and gracious, and instances of God's good-will to man. The Jewish doctors speak so often of the seven precepts of Noah, or of the sons of Noah, which they say were to be observed by all nations, that it may not be amiss to set them down. The first against the worship of idols. The second against blasphemy, and requiring to bless the name of God. The third against murder. The fourth against incest and all uncleanness. The fifth against theft and rapine. The sixth requiring the administration of justice. The seventh against eating of flesh with the life. These the Jews required the observance of from the proselytes of the gate. But the precepts here given all concern the life of man.
1.Man must not prejudice his own life by eating that food which is unwholesome and prejudicial to his health (Gen 9:4): "Flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof (that is, raw flesh), shall you not eat, as the beasts of prey do." It was necessary to add this limitation to the grant of liberty to eat flesh, lest, instead of nourishing their bodies by it, they should destroy them. God would hereby show, (1.) That though they were lords of the creatures, yet they were subjects to the Creator, and under the restraints of his law. That they must not be greedy and hasty in taking their food, but stay the preparing of it; not like Saul's soldiers (Sa1 14:32), nor riotous eaters of flesh, Pro 23:20. (3.) That they must not be barbarous and cruel to the inferior creatures. They must be lords, but not tyrants; they might kill them for their profit, but not torment them for their pleasure, nor tear away the member of a creature while it was yet alive, and eat that. (4.) That during the continuance of the law of sacrifices, in which the blood made atonement for the soul (Lev 17:11), signifying that the life of the sacrifice was accepted for the life of the sinner, blood must not be looked upon as a common thing, but must be poured out before the Lord (Sa2 23:16), either upon his altar or upon his earth. But, now that the great and true sacrifice has been offered, the obligation of the law ceases with the reason of it.
2.Man must not take away his own life: Your blood of your lives will I require, Gen 9:5. Our lives are not so our own as that we may quit them at our own pleasure, but they are God's and we must resign them at his pleasure; if we in any way hasten our own deaths, we are accountable to God for it.
3.The beasts must not be suffered to hurt the life of man: At the hand of every beast will I require it. To show how tender God was of the life of man, though he had lately made such destruction of lives, he will have the beast put to death that kills a man. This was confirmed by the law of Moses (Exo 21:28), and I think it would not be unsafe to observe it still. Thus God showed his hatred of the sin of murder, that men might hate it the more, and not only punish, but prevent it. And see Job 5:23.
4.Wilful murderers must be put to death. This is the sin which is here designed to be restrained by the terror of punishment (1.) God will punish murderers: At the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man, that is, "I will avenge the blood of the murdered upon the murderer." Ch2 24:22. When God requires the life of a man at the hand of him that took it away unjustly, the murderer cannot render that, and therefore must render his own in lieu of it, which is the only way left of making restitution. Note, The righteous God will certainly make inquisition for blood, though men cannot or do not. One time or other, in this world or in the next, he will both discover concealed murders, which are hidden from man's eye, and punish avowed and justified murders, which are too great for man's hand. (2.) The magistrate must punish murderers (Gen 9:6): Whoso sheddeth man's blood, whether upon a sudden provocation or having premeditated it (for rash anger is heart-murder as well as malice prepense, Mat 5:21, Mat 5:22), by man shall his blood be shed, that is, by the magistrate, or whoever is appointed or allowed to be the avenger of blood. There are those who are ministers of God for this purpose, to be a protection to the innocent, by being a terror to the malicious and evildoers, and they must not bear the sword in vain, Rom 13:4. Before the flood, as it should seem by the story of Cain, God took the punishment of murder into his own hands; but now he committed this judgment to men, to masters of families at first, and afterwards to the heads of countries, who ought to be faithful to the trust reposed in them. Note, Wilful murder ought always to be punished with death. It is a sin which the Lord would not pardon in a prince (Kg2 24:3, Kg2 24:4), and which therefore a prince should not pardon in a subject. To this law there is a reason annexed: For in the image of God made he man at first. Man is a creature dear to his Creator, and therefore ought to be so to us. God put honour upon him, let not us then put contempt upon him. Such remains of God's image are still even upon fallen man as that he who unjustly kills a man defaces the image of God and does dishonour to him. When God allowed men to kill their beasts, yet he forbade them to kill their slaves; for these are of a much more noble and excellent nature, not only God's creatures, but his image, Jam 3:9. All men have something of the image of God upon them; but magistrates have, besides, the image of his power, and the saints the image of his holiness, and therefore those who shed the blood of princes or saints incur a double guilt.
And He changed the food of men, giving them leave to eat flesh: for from Adam the first-formed until the Flood men ate only of seeds and the fruit of trees, and to eat flesh was not permitted to them. But since the three sons of Noah were the beginning of a race of men, God blessed them for multiplication and increase; saying: "Increase and multiply, and replenish the earth and rule it; and the fear and dread of you shall be upon every living thing of animals and upon all the fowls of the air; and they shall be to you for meat, even as the green herb: but the flesh with the blood of life ye shall not eat: for your blood also will I require at the hand of all beasts and at the hand of man. Whoso sheddeth a man’s blood, in return for his blood shall it be shed." For He made man the image of God; and the image of God is the Son, after whose image man was made: and for this cause He appeared in the end of the times that He might show the image (to be) like unto Himself. According to this covenant the race of man multiplied, springing up from the seed of the three.
God also blessed Noah and his sons that they might be fruitful and multiply and that fear of them should fall upon all flesh both in the sea and on dry land. “Only you shall not eat flesh with its life.” That means you shall eat no flesh that has not been slaughtered and whose blood, which is its life, has not been drained.
From this the eating of meat takes its beginning, not for the purpose of prompting them to gluttony. But since some of the people were about to offer sacrifices and make thanksgiving to the Lord, he grants them authority over food and obviates any anxiety about foods lest they seem to be abstaining from foods because they were not properly consecrated. “I have given you them all,” he says, “as I did the green grass.” Then, as in the case of Adam when he instructed him to abstain from the one tree while enjoying the others, so in this case too. After permitting the consumption of all foods without hesitation, he says, “except you are not to eat flesh with its lifeblood in it.” So what does this statement mean? It means “strangled,” for an animal’s blood is its soul. So since they were about to offer sacrifices in the form of animals, he is teaching them in these words that as long as the blood has been set aside for me, the flesh is for you. In doing so, however, he is intent upon resisting in advance any impulse toward homicide.
Except that you shall not eat flesh with its blood. For blood rightly denotes carnal desires and carnal sense. Blood is poured out when one renounces carnal temptations and thoughts, in which one lived poorly, so that such people can say with the Apostle: Yet I live, now not I; but Christ lives in me (Gal. II, 29). And again: I conferred not immediately with flesh and blood (Gal. I, 16): otherwise, whoever begins to incorporate those persevering in former crimes into the unity of the holy Church by baptizing them, as if eating beasts given by the Lord with blood, because he receives into society those whose conscience is still held by their old way of life as if suffocated. They say that this was the greatest transgression of the giants because they ate flesh with blood; and therefore the Lord, having destroyed them by the flood, indeed allowed people to eat flesh, but prohibited them from doing so with blood.
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SUMMARY
Following the universal permission for humanity to consume animal meat, Genesis 9:4 introduces a foundational and enduring prohibition: the consumption of blood. This verse explicitly declares, "But flesh with the life thereof, [which is] the blood thereof, shall ye not eat," thereby establishing the profound biblical principle that blood represents life itself, underscoring its sacredness, and affirming its ultimate belonging to God as the Creator and Sustainer of all life.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
The KJV text of Genesis 9:4 states: "But flesh with the life thereof, [which is] the blood thereof, shall ye not eat." This concise yet profound verse lays down a fundamental ethical and theological principle.
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
The profound message of Genesis 9:4 is conveyed through several impactful literary devices. The most prominent is Metonymy, where "blood" stands in for "life." The phrase "[which is] the blood thereof" directly equates the physical substance with the abstract concept of life, making the prohibition against consuming blood a prohibition against disrespecting or consuming life itself. This powerful substitution elevates blood from a mere biological fluid to a sacred symbol. Furthermore, the verse employs Emphasis through juxtaposition: the immediate follow-up to the permission to eat meat with a strict prohibition highlights the critical importance of the boundary being set. The concise, declarative nature of the command also lends it an air of Authority, underscoring God's sovereign right to establish moral laws for humanity.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
The prohibition in Genesis 9:4 establishes a foundational theological principle: the profound sacredness of life. By explicitly equating blood with life and forbidding its consumption, God declares that life is not a commodity for human disposal but a divine gift, ultimately belonging to Him. This principle underpins much of biblical ethics regarding the value of human life, the treatment of creation, and the sanctity of covenants. It asserts God's absolute sovereignty over life and death, demonstrating His right to establish moral boundaries for humanity, even in a post-Flood world where new permissions are granted. This command serves as a universal moral injunction, demonstrating God's ongoing governance and concern for righteous living, foreshadowing the detailed dietary and sacrificial laws of the Mosaic Covenant.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Genesis 9:4 holds enduring significance for believers today, primarily teaching us to hold all life in profound regard, recognizing its divine origin and sacred value. While specific dietary practices regarding blood vary among different Christian traditions (with some, like the early church in Acts 15:20, maintaining a prohibition on blood, and others viewing it as a ceremonial law fulfilled in Christ), the underlying principle remains constant: life is precious and belongs to God alone. This verse calls us to cultivate a deep reverence for life in all its forms, from human life created in God's image to animal life, and to acknowledge God's ultimate ownership and authority over creation. It prompts us to consider how we treat life, whether in our consumption habits, our ethical choices, or our advocacy for the vulnerable, reminding us that all life is ultimately a stewardship from God.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why does God prohibit eating blood?
Answer: God prohibits eating blood because it represents life itself. The Bible explicitly states, "the life of the flesh is in the blood" (Leviticus 17:11). By prohibiting its consumption, God underscores the sacredness of life, asserting His ultimate ownership and authority over it. It is a way of acknowledging that life is a divine gift, not to be treated as common or consumed without reverence. This command establishes a universal principle that life belongs to the Creator.
Is the prohibition against eating blood still applicable to Christians today?
Answer: Interpretations vary among Christian traditions. Some denominations adhere strictly to the prohibition, citing its origin in the universal Noahic covenant and its reaffirmation by the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15:20 and Acts 21:25. They view it as a moral, not merely ceremonial, law. Others view it as part of the ceremonial law fulfilled by Christ, focusing instead on the spiritual principle of the sanctity of life rather than the literal dietary restriction, as the New Testament often emphasizes freedom from dietary laws (e.g., Romans 14:1-23). Regardless of the specific dietary practice, the underlying theological principle that all life is sacred and belongs to God remains universally applicable to all believers.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
The prohibition against consuming blood in Genesis 9:4 finds its ultimate and profound fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The Old Testament's recurring emphasis on blood as the carrier of life, and its necessity for atonement (Leviticus 17:11), meticulously foreshadowed the perfect sacrifice yet to come. Jesus, as the Lamb of God (John 1:29), shed His own precious blood on the cross, which is the very essence of His sinless life, to atone for the sins of humanity. His blood, unlike the temporary animal sacrifices of the Old Covenant, provides eternal redemption and purification (Hebrews 9:12, Hebrews 9:22). Through His shed blood, a new covenant was inaugurated (Luke 22:20), offering forgiveness of sins and access to God's presence. Thus, the sanctity of life, first highlighted by the prohibition on blood in Genesis, culminates in the life-giving, atoning blood of Christ, through which believers receive spiritual new life and complete forgiveness, transforming the symbolic reverence for blood into a saving reality.