1Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2“Speak to Aaron, and to his sons, and to all the children of Israel, and say to them, ‘This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded: 3Whatever man there is of the house of Israel who kills a bull, or lamb, or goat in the camp, or who kills it outside the camp, 4and hasn’t brought it to the door of the Tent of Meeting to offer it as an offering to Yahweh before Yahweh’s tabernacle: blood shall be imputed to that man. He has shed blood. That man shall be cut off from among his people. 5This is to the end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they sacrifice in the open field, that they may bring them to Yahweh, to the door of the Tent of Meeting, to the priest, and sacrifice them for sacrifices of peace offerings to Yahweh. 6The priest shall sprinkle the blood on Yahweh’s altar at the door of the Tent of Meeting, and burn the fat for a pleasant aroma to Yahweh. 7They shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices to the goat idols, after which they play the prostitute. This shall be a statute forever to them throughout their generations.’
8“You shall say to them, ‘Any man there is of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who live as foreigners among them, who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice, 9and doesn’t bring it to the door of the Tent of Meeting to sacrifice it to Yahweh, that man shall be cut off from his people.
10“‘Any man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who live as foreigners among them, who eats any kind of blood, I will set my face against that soul who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people. 11For the life of the flesh is in the blood. I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life. 12Therefore I have said to the children of Israel, “No person among you may eat blood, nor may any stranger who lives as a foreigner among you eat blood.”
13“‘Whatever man there is of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who live as foreigners among them, who takes in hunting any animal or bird that may be eaten, he shall pour out its blood, and cover it with dust. 14For as to the life of all flesh, its blood is with its life. Therefore I said to the children of Israel, “You shall not eat the blood of any kind of flesh; for the life of all flesh is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off.”
15“‘Every person that eats what dies of itself, or that which is torn by animals, whether he is native-born or a foreigner, shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. Then he shall be clean. 16But if he doesn’t wash them, or bathe his flesh, then he shall bear his iniquity.’”
It may seem strange that King David, who had the godly desire to fulfill God’s prior command (Deut 12:5-7) to build a Temple to the LORD (2 Sam 7:2; 1 Kings 8:17-18; 1 Chr 17:1), and to whom God revealed the plans for its construction (1 Chr 28:19), would be forbidden to build it. However, God expressly forbids David to build the First Temple because he had been a warrior who had “shed so much blood on the earth …” The biblical principle is that “the life is in the blood” (Lev 17:11; cf. Deut 19:6), therefore, the shedding of blood is the taking of life. David’s life was defined by violence and warfare (whether slaying Goliath, fleeing from Saul, or fighting the Philistines). God desired that His Temple was to be a place of peace and so would have to be founded in peace by a man of peace. David had been chosen to rid Israel of its enemies through warfare (2 Sam 7:1, 9), and although these conquests had made possible the peaceful rule that followed, the means (war) was characteristically the opposite of peace. Therefore, David could not be the proper symbol to serve as the builder of a place of peace. Rather, his son Solomon, whose Hebrew name Shlomo means “His peace,” was the one to establish the Temple. So necessary was it to keep before the Nation that God’s house was to be a place of peace that God commanded that the preparation of the stones for its construction be at a quarry located away from the Temple site (1 Kings 6:7). At this distance people there would not be able to hear the sound of the iron implements cutting and tooling the stones, a sound that would remind them of the sound of battle (i.e., of swords clanging against one another) and bring back the painful memories of war. Even though God did not permit David to build the Temple, He did allow him to make the financial and practical preparations for its construction (1 Chr 28:11, 20-21; 29:1-21) and to have the knowledge that his son would complete the task to God’s glory (2 Sam 7:13).