Only ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it upon the earth as water.
Ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it upon the earth as water. The prohibition against eating or drinking blood, as an unnatural custom, accompanied the announcement of the divine grant of animal flesh for food (Genesis 9:4); and the prohibition was repeatedly renewed by Moses with reference to the great objects of the law (Leviticus 17:4) - the prevention of idolatry (Wilkinson's 'Ancient Egypt.,' 2:, p. 375) and the consecration of the sacrificial blood to God.
In regard, however, to the blood of animals slain for food, it might be shed without ceremony, and poured on the ground as a common thing, like water; only, for the sake of decency, as well as for preventing all risk of idolatry, it was to be covered over with earth (Leviticus 17:13), in opposition to the practice of pagan sportsmen, who left it exposed as an offering to the god of the chase.