And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man.
5. And surely your blood of your lives will I require . In these words the Lord more explicitly declares that he does not forbid the use of blood out of regard to animals themselves, but because he accounts the life of men precious: and because the sole end of his law is, to promote the exercise of common humanity between them.
Noah blessed God at his altar; now God blesses Noah in return. His promises flow from eternal purposes of love, not from whim. The earth is given to mankind as their possession and home; as Noah was faithful in offering, so God confirms and multiplies His mercy toward the faithful.
AI summary
Commenting on Genesis 9:1-7
And surely your blood of your lives will I require,.... Or "for surely your blood", &c. (o); and so is a reason of the preceding law, to teach men not to shed human blood; or though, "surely your blood", as Jarchi and Aben Ezra; though God had given them liberty to slay the creatures, and shed their blood, and eat them, yet he did not...