Chapter 17

Leviticus 17:4 - The word for "reckoned" (NASB) or "considered" (NIV) or "imputed" (KJV) in Hebrew is the same word used for when Abraham believed God and it was "reckoned" to him as righteousness. The concept of imputation of righteousness is very important for followers of Jesus. Here, the word is used in the opposite sense. The person who kills an animal (presumably to sacrifice to another god) and does not bring it to the LORD, it is as if he is guilty of murder (lit. "shedding of blood"). The same phrase "blood-guilty" or "blood-shed" is used also in reference to Joseph and his brothers. They plotted to kill Joseph, but Reuben stepped in and said, "Let us not shed blood..."
It is interesting to see how the Lord views sacrifices to idols. If a person kills an animal in order to present it to an idol, the act of killing the animal was enough to make him guilty of blood-shed. I think the reason for this is because there is no such thing as "other gods" only demons (Deut 32:17). To kill an animal for a demon is a waste of life. If you waste a life, you are guilty of unnecessary blood-shed.

Leviticus 17:5 - In the Hebrew, the objects are telling: A person was to bring his offering to the Lord at a specific place (Tent of Meeting) and entrust it to a specific person (Priest as intermediary).

Leviticus 17:6 - I thought for a moment that "soothing" might also be applied to the anger of the Lord (as in to "sooth the anger of the Lord"). But after consulting a lexicon, it is clear that this word is only used on the context of sacrifices.

Leviticus 17:7 - This verse mentions "goat-demons." Some commentators call them "Satyrs", but after doing some research, I have a hard time believing it is really the mythological Satyr for a couple reasons: (1) The Satyr, as we know it now, did not appear until Greek literature several hundred years after Leviticus was written. The Greeks could have borrowed the concept from the Ancient Near East and embellished it. (2) The Hebrew word has simply to do with being hairy or goat-like. (3) I cannot find any Egyptian reference to a Satyr prior to the Greeks. (Egypt existed the same time Leviticus was written.)
Most probable is this goat-demon concept has its origin in Arabic and Syrian legends where hairy demons (or monsters) would inhabit desolate places. Apparently, some worship of these demons had crept into Hebrew practice, and the Lord is here putting a stop to it. If you look up Satyr online, you will see all manner of graphic illustrations of Greek renderings. These are not what the Bible depicts. The Greeks painted that hundreds a years after this book was written.

Leviticus 17:1-9 - These verses are about preventing idolatry. Any sacrifices the Israelites make, even in private, should be brought to the Lord.

Leviticus 17:10 - Notice how severe a punishment was for a person who ate blood compared with the punishment for sacrificing to idols. In verse 9, a person was cut off by his own people for idolatry. In verse 10, the Lord set His face against him and He Himself cut the offender off. The reason for such severity is in the next verse.

Leviticus 17:11 - Blood is sacred to the Lord. It represents life, and life is sacred. The NASB rendering of part b of this verse is somewhat difficult to understand. Here is my rendering, which is simpler, "Because it is the blood that makes atonement for the life." The difficulty in the Hebrew is how to understand a pronoun for "it". I am seeing it as a retrospective pronoun that emphasizes the main subject (blood).

Leviticus 17:13 - This is describing an unofficial burial for the blood. Just as we bury our dead out of respect (or don't bury in order to shame, see 2 Kings 9:10).

Leviticus 17:16 - "He shall bear his own guilt." It appears as if the Lord is saying that this person cannot turn to a sacrifice to bear this guilt away. There are few places in the Old Testament that share this same construction in Hebrew: Leviticus 5:1, 5:17, 20:17, 20:19; Numbers 30:15 (or vs. 16 in Hebrew). The Numbers verse concerns a man that bears the guilt of his wife.
There are two places in the New Testament that resemble the above: Mark 3:28-29 (Blaspheme against the Holy Spirit) and Hebrews 10:26. There seems to be some resemblance to Luke 12:48 as well.
Modern Christianity does not know what to do with the two New Testament passages cited above. They do not fit into our paradigm of "all sins are forgiven." The only thing I wish to point out here is that the concept is not foreign to the Bible, but it indeed occurs several times in the Old Testament as well. To explain these passages is beyond the scope of the present work.