In 3.17 passing mention is made of “blood” along with the fat that is not to be consumed. Verses 26 and 27 develop and clarify this prohibition. It will be further discussed and justified in 17.3-14.

Moreover: in addition to being somewhat archaic, the transition word used in Revised Standard Version is too strong. The word in Hebrew at this point is the common conjunction that is often translated “and” or “but,” but is frequently left untranslated. Some versions make a paragraph break at this point (New English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, and Traduction oecuménique de la Bible) but have no transition word. Others (such as Good News Translation) continue the same paragraph without any transition word.

You: the plural pronoun indicates that the people of Israel are being addressed directly and as a group. Note that the restructuring of Good News Translation makes it necessary to transform the direct address to a kind of indirect address and change the pronoun to “they.”

Fowl: that is, any kind of bird.

In any of your dwellings: see 3.17, where the Hebrew is the same in spite of the slightly different renderings in Revised Standard Version. Here this information has been shifted forward in Good News Translation and rendered “No matter where the Israelites live….” However, in some languages such a rendering may give too much prominence to this element.

Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René and Ellington, John. A Handbook on Leviticus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1990. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .