But you must not
This phrase introduces a divine command, emphasizing the authority and seriousness of God's instruction. The Hebrew word for "must not" is "לֹא" (lo), a strong negative imperative. This command is not merely a suggestion but a binding directive from God, highlighting the importance of obedience to His laws. In the broader context of Genesis, this command follows the covenant God establishes with Noah, underscoring the moral and ethical boundaries set by God for humanity.

eat meat
The Hebrew word for "meat" is "בָּשָׂר" (basar), which refers to flesh or food derived from animals. This is significant as it marks a shift from the pre-flood diet, which was primarily plant-based, to a post-flood allowance for consuming animal flesh. However, this permission comes with specific restrictions, indicating that even in the consumption of meat, there is a divine order and respect for life that must be maintained.

with its lifeblood
The term "lifeblood" is translated from the Hebrew "נֶפֶשׁ" (nephesh), often rendered as "soul" or "life." This word conveys the idea that the blood represents the life force of the creature. In ancient Near Eastern cultures, blood was often associated with life and vitality, and it held a sacred status. The prohibition against consuming blood underscores the sanctity of life and the recognition that life belongs to God alone.

still in it
This phrase indicates the condition in which the meat must not be consumed. The Hebrew construction suggests that the blood must be properly drained from the animal before it is eaten. This practice not only respects the life of the animal but also foreshadows later Levitical laws concerning the handling of blood, which are detailed in the Mosaic Law. The draining of blood before consumption is a tangible reminder of the life-giving power of blood and the respect due to the Creator who gives life.

(4) But flesh. . . . --The words are remarkable. "Only flesh in its soul, its blood, ye shall not eat." The Authorised Version is probably right in taking blood as in apposition to soul, which word means here the principle of animation, or that which causes an animal to live. This is God's especial gift; for He alone can bestow upon that aggregation of solids and fluids which we call a body the secret principle of life. Of this hidden life the blood is the representative, and while man is permitted to have the body for his food, as being the mere vessel which contains this life, the gift itself must go back to God, and the blood as its symbol be treated with reverence.

Verse 4. - But - אַך, an adverb of limitation or exception, as in Leviticus 11:4, introducing a restriction on the foregoing precept - flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof. Literally, with its soul, its blood; the blood being regarded as the seat of the soul, or life principle (Leviticus 17:11), and even as the soul itself (Leviticus 17:14). The idea of the unity of the soul and the blood, on which the prohibition of blood is based, comes to light everywhere in Scripture. In the blood of one mortally wounded his soul flows forth (Lamentations 2:12), and he who voluntarily sacrifices himself pours out his soul unto death (Isaiah 53:12). The murderer of the innocent slays the soul of the blood of the innocent (ψυχὴν αἵματος ἀθώου, Deuteronomy 27:25), which also cleaves to his (the murderer's) skirts (Jeremiah 2:34; cf. Proverbs 28:17, blood of a soul; cf. Genesis 4:10 with Hebrews 12:24; Job 24:12 with Revelation 6:9; vide also Psalm 94:21; Matthew 23:35). Nor can it be said to be exclusively peculiar to Holy Scripture. In ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics the hawk, which feeds on bloods, represents the soul. Virgil says of a dying person, "purpuream vomit ille animam" ('AEneid,' 9:349). The Greek philosophers taught that the blood was either the soul (Critias), or the soul s food (Pythagoras), or the soul's seat (Empedocles), or the soul's producing cause (the Stoics); but only Scripture reveals the true relation between them both when it declares the blood to be not the soul absolutely, but the means of its self-attestation (vide Delitzsch s ' Bib. Psychology,' div. 4. sec. 11.). Shall ye not eat. Not referring to, although certainly forbidding, the eating of flesh taken from a living animal (Raschi, Cajetan, Delitzsch, Luther, Peele, Jamieson) - a fiendish custom which may have been practiced among the antediluvians, as, according to travelers, it is, or was, among modern Abyssinians; rather interdicting the flesh of slaughtered animals from which the blood has not been properly drained (Calvin, Keil, Kalisch, Murphy, Wordsworth). The same prohibition (commonly regarded by the Hebrew doctors as the seventh of the Noachic precepts which were enjoined upon all nations; vide infra, ver. 6) was afterwards incorporated in the Mosaic legislation (cf. Leviticus 3:17; Leviticus 7:26, 27; Leviticus 17:10-14; Leviticus 19:26; Deuteronomy 12:16, 23, 24; Deuteronomy 15:23), and subsequently imposed upon the Gentile converts in the Christian Church by the authority of the Holy Ghost and the apostles (Acts 15:28, 29). Among other reasons, doubtless, for the original promulgation of this law were these: -

1. A desire to guard against the practice of cruelty to animals (Chrysostom, Calvin, 'Speaker's Commentary').

2. A design to hedge about human life by showing the inviolability which in God s eye attached to even the lives of the lower creatures (Calvin, Willet, Peele, Kalisch, Murphy).

3. The intimate connection which even in the animal creation subsisted between the blood and the life (Kurtz, 'Sacr. Worship,' I. A.V.). . . .

Parallel Commentaries ...

But
אַךְ־ (’aḵ-)
Adverb
Strong's 389: A particle of affirmation, surely

you must not
לֹ֥א (lō)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

eat
תֹאכֵֽלוּ׃ (ṯō·ḵê·lū)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - second person masculine plural
Strong's 398: To eat

meat
בָּשָׂ֕ר (bā·śār)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 1320: Flesh, body, person, the pudenda of a, man

with its lifeblood
בְּנַפְשׁ֥וֹ (bə·nap̄·šōw)
Preposition-b | Noun - feminine singular construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 5315: A soul, living being, life, self, person, desire, passion, appetite, emotion

[still] in it.
דָמ֖וֹ (ḏā·mōw)
Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 1818: Blood, of man, an animal, the juice of the grape, bloodshed


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OT Law: Genesis 9:4 But flesh with its life its blood (Gen. Ge Gn)