“Eat no fat or blood”
This is a permanent statute for the generations to come, wherever you live: You must not eat any fat or any blood. (Leviticus 3:17 BSB)
What it sounds like today
An arbitrary dietary ban, or a modern-sounding health rule.
The cultural key
The double ban is theological, not dietary advice. In the ancient world the fat (chelev, the hard suet around the organs) was prized as the richest, best part of the animal, and precisely for that reason it was reserved for God, burned on the altar as His portion, 'a pleasing aroma to the LORD.' To eat it would be to take for yourself the choicest part that belonged to God. The blood, meanwhile, was off-limits because 'the life of the flesh is in the blood' (17:11); life belongs to the Creator, and the blood was given for atonement on the altar, not for the dinner table. So the rule is really a statement about ownership and reverence: the best of the offering (the fat) and the life of the creature (the blood) are God's, and the worshiper does not consume what is holy. A modern reader hears a quaint food taboo; the first hearers heard that the finest portion and life itself are surrendered to God.
Recovered meaning
The fat, the animal's richest part, was burned as God's portion, and the blood was life itself, given for atonement; so Israel ate neither. The law is about reverence and ownership, God gets the best and holds the rights to life, not about diet.