Negation, Emphasis, and Syntax in Genesis 9:4
אַךְ־בָּשָׂ֕ר בְּנַפְשֹׁ֥ו דָמֹ֖ו לֹ֥א תֹאכֵֽלוּ׃ (Genesis 9:4) But flesh with its life, its blood, you shall not eat. This short but powerful prohibition in the covenant with Noah establishes one of the foundational food laws in the Bible: the ban on consuming blood. The grammar is deceptively compact. Through a careful interplay of emphatic particles,…