For [it is] the life of all flesh,.... Of every animal:
the blood of it [is] for the life thereof; for the production, preservation, and continuance of life; that on which life depends, as Jarchi observes:
therefore I said unto the children of Israel, ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh; of beasts or birds, whose flesh was fit for food; but their blood was not to be eaten, for the reasons before given:
for the life of all flesh [is] the blood thereof; which is repeated, that it might be observed and taken notice of, as that in which the force of the reason lay for giving this law:
whosoever eateth it shall be cut off; by death, whether he be an Israelite or a proselyte of righteousness; wherefore if this law was now in force, its penalty also would be continued, whereas it is not, and which shows the abrogation of it. Also Leviticus 17:4.