This article reviews the textual transmission of the ban on local butchery in Leviticus 17:3–4. It explores the importance of the manuscripts from the Dead Sea, in particular 4QLevd and 11Q19, for interpreting the plus at verse 4, attested in the Septuagint and in the Samaritan Pentateuch, as well as the change in address in v. 3, which is found in the Septuagint. In contrast to certain recent studies that treat these textual variants as evidence of ancient attempts to tone down the totalizing ban on local butchery, this article concludes that the plus in verse 4, as well as the gloss in verse 3, reinforces the ban on slaughter outside the sanctuary.