Leviticus 27
27
Votive Offerings and Dedications. 1The Lord said to Moses: 2#Vows are conditional promissory oaths. One covenants to do something for the benefit of God, usually to make a dedication, if God fulfills the individual’s accompanying request (cf. Gn 28:20–21; Jgs 11:30–31; 1 Sm 1:11; 2 Sm 15:7–8; Ps 56:13–14). Vows must be fulfilled (Nm 30:3; Dt 23:22; cf. Ps 66:13–15). Verses 2–8 deal with votive offerings involving human beings. Actual dedication of human beings (cf. Jgs 11:30–31, 34–40; 1 Sm 1:11, 24–28) is obviated by payment of the person’s value (mentioned in the temple income in 2 Kgs 12:5). The values reflect the different economic and administrative roles of people in different age and gender groups within ancient Israelite society. Verses 9–13 concern the bringing of animals for a vow. Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When anyone makes a vow to the Lord#Dt 23:22–24; Jgs 11:30–31; Eccl 5:3–4. with respect to the value of a human being, 3the value for males between the ages of twenty and sixty shall be fifty silver shekels, by the sanctuary shekel; 4and for a female, the value shall be thirty shekels. 5For persons between the ages of five and twenty, the value for a male shall be twenty shekels, and for a female, ten shekels. 6For persons between the ages of one month and five years, the value for a male shall be five silver shekels, and for a female, three shekels. 7For persons of sixty or more, for a male the value shall be fifteen shekels, and ten shekels for a female. 8However, if the one who made the vow is too poor to meet the sum,#Lv 5:7, 11. the person must be set before the priest, who shall determine a value; the priest will do this in keeping with the means of the one who made the vow.
9If the offering vowed to the Lord is an animal that may be sacrificed, every such animal given to the Lord becomes sacred.#Lv 27:11, 27. 10The offerer shall not substitute or exchange another for it, either a worse or a better one. If the offerer exchanges one animal in place of another, both the original and its substitute shall become sacred. 11If any unclean animal which is unfit for sacrifice#Lv 11:2–8; Ex 13:13; 34:20. to the Lord is vowed, it must be set before the priest, 12who shall determine its value#Determine its value: in contrast to human beings (vv. 3–7) there are no set values for unclean animals, and the condition of the animal is taken into consideration (cf. vv. 14, 27). in keeping with its good or bad qualities, and the value set by the priest shall stand. 13If the offerer wishes to redeem the animal, the person shall pay one fifth more than this valuation.#Lv 5:16, 24.
14#These verses deal with dedications. They take effect when uttered and, unlike vows, they are not conditional. They are related to the jubilee year laws in 25:23–31. When someone dedicates a house as sacred to the Lord,#House as sacred to the Lord: the house becomes sanctuary property and presumably may be sold to another if the owner does not redeem it (cf. notes on vv. 20 and 21). While 25:31 requires that unredeemed houses in unwalled towns be returned to the original owners at the jubilee, in the laws here such houses apparently become the property of the sanctuary (cf. v. 21). It is likely that dedicated houses in a walled city needed to be redeemed within one year, following 25:29–30. the priest shall determine its value in keeping with its good or bad qualities, and the value set by the priest shall stand. 15A person dedicating a house who then wishes to redeem it shall pay one fifth more than the price thus established, and then it will again belong to that individual.#Lv 22:14.
16If someone dedicates to the Lord a portion of hereditary land, its valuation shall be made according to the amount of seed required to sow it, the acreage sown with a homer#Homer: see note on Is 5:10. of barley seed being valued at fifty silver shekels. 17If the dedication of a field is made at the beginning of a jubilee period, the full valuation shall hold; 18but if it is some time after this, the priest shall estimate its money value according to the number of years left until the next jubilee year, with a corresponding reduction on the valuation.#Lv 25:15–16, 26–27, 50–52. 19A person dedicating a field who then wishes to redeem#Redeem: the person apparently can redeem the land up to the jubilee year, following 25:23–28. See note on v. 21. #Lv 25:25. it shall pay one fifth more than the price thus established, and so reclaim it. 20If, instead of redeeming such a field, one sells it#If…one sells it: the verse is difficult since the person should not be able to sell the land after it is dedicated. The verb “sells” may be construed impersonally here: “If…it is sold,” i.e., by the sanctuary. to another, it may no longer be redeemed; 21but at the jubilee it shall be released#Lv 25:28, 31. as sacred#Released as sacred: the dedication changes the ownership of the land. It now belongs to the sanctuary. It returns to the sanctuary’s possession after leasing it out (v. 20). Presumably if the land remained in the sanctuary’s possession until the jubilee, and it was not redeemed, the land would belong permanently to the sanctuary and priests. to the Lord; like a field that is put under the ban, it shall become priestly property.
22If someone dedicates to the Lord a field that was purchased and was not part of hereditary property, 23the priest shall compute its value in proportion to the number of years until the next jubilee, and on the same day the person shall pay the price thus established, a sacred donation to the Lord; 24at the jubilee the field shall revert to the hereditary owner of this land from whom it had been purchased.#In contrast to the cases in vv. 14–15 and 16–21, this land returns to the original owner since that individual did not personally make the dedication. The principle is that one cannot permanently dedicate what one does not own. Cf. 2 Sm 24:22–25.
25Every valuation shall be made according to the standard of the sanctuary shekel. There are twenty gerahs to the shekel.
Irredeemable Offerings. 26#Firstborn animals and human beings already belong to God (cf. Ex 13:1–2, 12; 34:19); they cannot be vowed or dedicated. Cf. Nm 18:15–18; Dt 15:19–23. Note that a firstborn animal,#Ex 13:2. which as such already belongs to the Lord, may not be dedicated. Whether an ox or a sheep, it is the Lord’s. 27But if it is an unclean animal,#An unclean animal: such as the firstborn of a donkey, which was unfit for sacrifice. According to Ex 13:13; 34:20, a firstborn donkey was to be redeemed by offering a sheep in its stead, or was to have its neck broken. it may be redeemed by paying one fifth more than its value. If it is not redeemed, it shall be sold at its value.
28Note, also, that any possession which someone puts under the ban#Puts under the ban: this is a higher form of dedication to God than that found in vv. 14–24. Anything so dedicated is beyond redemption and cannot be sold by the sanctuary and priests (contrast vv. 15, 19, 20). This type of dedication is found mostly in contexts of war (e.g., Jos 6:17–21; 8:26; 10:1, 28). Lv 27:28 shows that the ban can apply to one’s own property. for the Lord, whether it is a human being, an animal, or a hereditary field, shall be neither sold nor redeemed; everything that is put under the ban becomes most holy to the Lord.#Nm 18:14; Dt 7:26; Jos 7:1; 1 Sm 15:21; Ez 44:29. 29All human beings that are put under the ban cannot be redeemed; they must be put to death.#1 Kgs 20:42.
30#On the regulation concerning the tithes see Dt 14:22–29. All tithes of the land, whether in grain from the fields or in fruit from the trees, belong to the Lord; they are sacred to the Lord.#Nm 18:25–32; Dt 14:22–24; Mal 3:8, 10. 31If someone wishes to redeem any of the tithes, the person shall pay one fifth more than their value. 32The tithes of the herd and the flock, every tenth animal that passes under the herdsman’s rod, shall be sacred to the Lord. 33It shall not matter whether good ones or bad ones are thus chosen, and no exchange may be made. If any exchange is made, both the original animal and its substitute become sacred and cannot be redeemed.
34These are the commandments which the Lord gave Moses on Mount Sinai for the Israelites.#Lv 7:38.
Currently Selected:
Leviticus 27: NABRE
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc
Leviticus 27
27
1And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When a man shall accomplish a vow, the persons shall be for the LORD by thy estimation. 3And thy estimation shall be of the male from twenty years old even unto sixty years old, even thy estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary. 4And if it be a female, then thy estimation shall be thirty shekels. 5And if it be from five years old even unto twenty years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male twenty shekels, and for the female ten shekels. 6And if it be from a month old even unto five years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male five shekels of silver, and for the female thy estimation shall be three shekels of silver. 7And if it be from sixty years old and upward; if it be a male, then thy estimation shall be fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels. 8But if he be poorer than thy estimation, then he shall be set before the priest, and the priest shall value him; according to the ability of him that vowed shall the priest value him. 9And if it be a beast, whereof men offer an oblation unto the LORD, all that any man giveth of such unto the LORD shall be holy. 10He shall not alter it, nor change it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good: and if he shall at all change beast for beast, then both it and that for which it is changed shall be holy. 11And if it be any unclean beast, of which they do not offer an oblation unto the LORD, then he shall set the beast before the priest: 12and the priest shall value it, whether it be good or bad: as thou the priest valuest it, so shall it be. 13But if he will indeed redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part thereof unto thy estimation.
14And when a man shall sanctify his house to be holy unto the LORD, then the priest shall estimate it, whether it be good or bad: as the priest shall estimate it, so shall it stand. 15And if he that sanctified it will redeem his house, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be his. 16And if a man shall sanctify unto the LORD part of the field of his possession, then thy estimation shall be according to the sowing thereof: the sowing of a homer of barley shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. 17If he sanctify his field from the year of jubile, according to thy estimation it shall stand. 18But if he sanctify his field after the jubile, then the priest shall reckon unto him the money according to the years that remain unto the year of jubile, and an abatement shall be made from thy estimation. 19And if he that sanctified the field will indeed redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be assured to him. 20And if he will not redeem the field, or if he have sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed any more: 21but the field, when it goeth out in the jubile, shall be holy unto the LORD, as a field devoted; the possession thereof shall be the priest's. 22And if he sanctify unto the LORD a field which he hath bought, which is not of the field of his possession; 23then the priest shall reckon unto him the worth of thy estimation unto the year of jubile: and he shall give thine estimation in that day, as a holy thing unto the LORD. 24In the year of jubile the field shall return unto him of whom it was bought, even to him to whom the possession of the land belongeth. 25And all thy estimations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall be the shekel.
26Only the firstling among beasts, which is made a firstling to the LORD, no man shall sanctify it; whether it be ox or sheep, it is the LORD'S. 27And if it be of an unclean beast, then he shall ransom it according to thine estimation, and shall add unto it the fifth part thereof: or if it be not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to thy estimation. 28Notwithstanding, no devoted thing, that a man shall devote unto the LORD of all that he hath, whether of man or beast, or of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed: every devoted thing is most holy unto the LORD. 29None devoted, which shall be devoted of men, shall be ransomed; he shall surely be put to death. 30And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD'S: it is holy unto the LORD. 31And if a man will redeem aught of his tithe, he shall add unto it the fifth part thereof. 32And all the tithe of the herd or the flock, whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the LORD. 33He shall not search whether it be good or bad, neither shall he change it: and if he change it at all, then both it and that for which it is changed shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed. 34These are the commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society