1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

2Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When a man shall make a singular 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 above; 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 present himself before the priest, and the priest shall value him; according to his ability that vowed shall the priest value him.

9And if it be a beast, whereof men bring an offering 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 it and the exchange thereof shall be holy.

11And if it be any unclean beast, of which they do not offer a sacrifice unto the LORD, then he shall present the beast before the priest:

12And the priest shall value it, whether it be good or bad: as thou valuest it, who art the priest, so shall it be.

13But if he will at all redeem it, then he shall add a 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 some part of a field of his possession, then thy estimation shall be according to the seed thereof: an homer of barley seed 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, even unto the year of the jubile, and it shall be abated from thy estimation.

19And if he that sanctified the field will in any wise 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 a man sanctify unto the LORD a field which he hath bought, which is not of the fields of his possession;

23Then the priest shall reckon unto him the worth of thy estimation, even unto the year of the jubile: and he shall give thine estimation in that day, as a holy thing unto the LORD.

24In the year of the jubile the field shall return unto him of whom it was bought, even to him to whom the possession of the land did belong.

25And all thy estimations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall be the shekel.

26Only the firstling of the beasts, which should be the LORD'S firstling, 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 redeem it according to thine estimation, and shall add a fifth part of it thereto: 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, both of man and beast, and of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed: every devoted thing ismost holy unto the LORD.

29None devoted, which shall be devoted of men, shall be redeemed; but 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 at all redeem ought of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof.

32And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of 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 the change thereof shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.

34 These are the commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai.

1 And the Lord spake vnto Moses, saying,

2Speake vnto the children of Israel, and say vnto them, When a man shal make a singular vow, the persons shall be for the Lord, by thy estimation.

3And thy estimation shall be: Of the male from twentie yeeres old, euen vnto sixtie yeeres old: euen thy estimation shall be fiftie shekels of siluer, after the shekel of the Sanctuary.

4And if it be a female, then thy estimation shall be thirtie shekels.

5And if it be from fiue yeeres olde, euen vnto twentie yeeres old, then thy estimation shall be of the male twentie shekels, and for the female ten shekels.

6And if it be from a moneth old, euen vnto fiue yeeres old, then thy estimation shall be of the male, fiue shekels of siluer, and for the female, thy estimation shall be three shekels of siluer.

7And if it be from sixtie yeeres old, and aboue, if it be a male, then thy estimation shall be fifteene shekels, and for the female ten shekels.

8But if he bee poorer then thy estimation, then he shall present himselfe before the Priest, and the Priest shall value him: according to his abilitie that vowed, shall the Priest value him.

9And if it be a beast whereof men bring an offering vnto the Lord, all that any man giueth of such vnto 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 hee shall at all change beast for beast, then it, and the exchange thereof shall be holy.

11And if it be any vncleane beast, of which they doe not offer a sacrifice vnto the Lord, then he shall present the beast before the Priest:

12And the Priest shall value it, whether it be good or bad: as thou valuest it who art the Priest: so shall it be.

13But if hee will at all redeeme it, then he shall adde a fift part thereof vnto thy estimation.

14 And when a man shall sanctifie his house to be holy vnto the Lord, then the Priest shal 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 redeeme his house, then he shall adde the fift part of the money of thy estimation vnto it, and it shall be his.

16And if a man shall sanctifie vnto the Lord some part of a field of his possession, then thy estimation shall be according to the seed thereof: An Homer of barley seed shall be valued at fiftie shekels of siluer.

17If hee sanctifie his field from the yeere of Iubile, according to thy estimation it shall stand.

18But if hee sanctifie his field after the Iubile, then the Priest shall reckon vnto him the money, according to the yeeres that remaine, euen vnto the yeere of the Iubile, and it shall be abated from thy estimation.

19And if he that sanctified the field, will in any wise redeeme it, then he shal adde the fift part of the money of thy estimation vnto it, and it shall be assured to him.

20And if hee will not redeeme the field, or if he haue sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed any more.

21But the field, when it goeth out in the Iubile, shall be holy vnto the Lord, as a field deuoted: the possession thereof shalbe the Priests.

22And if a man sanctifie vnto the Lord a field which he hath bought, which is not of the fieldes of his possession:

23Then the Priest shall reckon vnto him the worth of thy estimation, euen vnto the yeere of the Iubile, and hee shall giue thine estimation in that day, as a holy thing vnto the Lord.

24In the yeere of the Iubile, the field shall returne vnto him of whom it was bought, euen to him to whom the possession of the land did belong.

25And all thy estimations shall be according to the shekel of the Sanctuarie: twentie Gerahs shall bee the shekel.

26 Onely the firstling of the beasts which should be the Lords firstling, no man shall sanctifie it, whether it bee oxe, or sheepe: It is the Lords.

27And if it be of an vncleane beast, then hee shall redeeme it according to thine estimation, and shall adde a fifth part of it thereto: Or if it be not redeemed, then it shalbe sold according to thy estimation.

28 Notwithstanding, no deuoted thing that a man shall deuote vnto the Lord, of all that he hath, both of man and beast, and of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed: euery deuoted thing is most holy vnto the Lord.

29None deuoted, which shalbe deuoted of men, shall be redeemed: but 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 Lords: it is holy vnto the Lord.

31And if a man will at all redeeme ought of his tithes, he shall adde thereto the fifth part thereof.

32And concerning the tithe of the herde, or of the flocke, euen of whatsoeuer passeth vnder the rod, the tenth shalbe holy vnto 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 the change thereof, shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.

34These are the Commandements which the Lord commanded Moses, for the children of Israel in mount Sinai.

II == Num 6:2 ; Judg 11:30-31 , 39

 

 

 

III == Ex 30:13

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

XIII == Lev 27:15 , 19

 

 

 

 

 

 

XV == Lev 27:13

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

XVIII == Lev 25:15-16

 

 

 

XIX == Lev 27:13

 

 

 

 

 

XXI == Lev 25:10 , 28 , 31 ; 27:28 ; Num 18:14 ; Ezek 44:29

XXII == Lev 25:10 , 25

 

 

XXIII == Lev 27:18

 

 

XXIV == Lev 25:28

 

XXV == Ex 30:13 ; Num 3:47 ; 18:16

 

 

XXVI == Ex 13:2 , 12 ; 22:30 ; Num 18:17 ; Deut 15:19

XXVII == Lev 27:11-13

 

 

 

 

XXVIII == Lev 27:21 ; Josh 6:17-19

 

 

 

XXIX == Num 21:2-3

 

XXX == Gen 28:22 ; Num 18:21 , 24 ; 2nd Chr 31:5-6 , 12 ; Neh 13:12 ; Mal 3:8 , 10

XXXI == Lev 27:13

XXXII == Jer 33:13 ; Ezek 20:37 ; Mic 7:14

 

 

XXXIII == Lev 27:10

 

 

 

XXXIV == Lev 26:46

 

 

1 The LORD said to Moses,

2 "Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When anyone fulfills a vow of offering one or more persons to the LORD, who are to be ransomed at a fixed sum of money,

3 for persons between the ages of twenty and sixty, the fixed sum, in sanctuary shekels, shall be fifty silver shekels for a man,

4 and thirty shekels for a woman;

5 for persons between the ages of five and twenty, the fixed sum shall be twenty shekels for a youth, and ten for a maiden;

6 for persons between the ages of one month and five years, the fixed sum shall be five silver shekels for a boy, and three for a girl;

7 for persons of sixty or more, the fixed sum shall be fifteen shekels for a man, and ten for a woman.

8 However, if the one who took the vow is too poor to meet the fixed sum, the person must be set before the priest, who shall determine the sum for his ransom in keeping with the means of the one who made the vow.

9 "If the offering vowed to the LORD is an animal that may be sacrificed, every such animal, when vowed to the LORD, becomes sacred.

10 The offerer shall not present a substitute for it by exchanging either a better for a worse one or a worse for a better one. If he attempts to offer one animal in place of another, both the original and its substitute shall be treated as sacred.

11 If the animal vowed to the LORD is unclean and therefore unfit for sacrifice, it must be set before the priest,

12 who shall determine its value in keeping with its good or bad qualities, and the value set by the priest shall stand.

13 If the offerer wishes to redeem the animal, he shall pay one fifth more than this valuation.

14 "When someone dedicates his house as sacred to the LORD, the priest shall determine its value in keeping with its good or bad points, and the value set by the priest shall stand.

15 If the one who dedicated his house wishes to redeem it, he shall pay one fifth more than the price thus established, and then it will again be his.

16 "If the object which someone dedicates to the LORD is a piece of his hereditary land, its valuation shall be made according to the amount of seed required to sow it, the acreage sown with a homer of barley seed being valued at fifty silver shekels.

17 If the dedication of a field is made at the beginning of a jubilee period, the full valuation shall hold;

18 but 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 rebate on the valuation.

19 If the one who dedicated his field wishes to redeem it, he shall pay one fifth more than the price thus established, and so reclaim it.

20 If, instead of redeeming such a field, he sells it to someone else, it may no longer be redeemed;

21 but at the jubilee it shall be released as sacred to the LORD; like a field that is doomed, it shall become priestly property.

22 "If the field that some man dedicates to the LORD is one he had purchased and not a part of his hereditary property,

23 the priest shall compute its value in proportion to the number of years until the next jubilee, and on the same day the price thus established shall be given as sacred to the LORD;

24 at the jubilee, however, the field shall revert to the hereditary owner of this land from whom it had been purchased.

25 "Every valuation shall be made according to the standard of the sanctuary shekel. There are twenty gerahs to the shekel.

26 "Note that a first-born animal, which as such already belongs to the LORD, may not be dedicated by vow to him. If it is an ox or a sheep, it shall be ceded to the LORD;

27 but if it is an unclean animal, it may be redeemed by paying one fifth more than its fixed value. If it is not redeemed, it shall be sold at its fixed value.

28 "Note, also, that any one of his possessions which a man vows as doomed to the LORD, whether it is a human being or an animal or a hereditary field, shall be neither sold nor ransomed; everything that is thus doomed becomes most sacred to the LORD.

29 All human beings that are doomed lose the right to be redeemed; they must be put to death.

30 "All tithes of the land, whether in grain from the fields or in fruit from the trees, belong to the LORD, as sacred to him.

31 If someone wishes to buy back any of his tithes, he shall pay one fifth more than their value.

32 The tithes of the herd and the flock shall be determined by ceding to the LORD as sacred every tenth animal as they are counted by the herdsman's rod.

33 It shall not matter whether good ones or bad ones are thus chosen, and no exchange may be made. If any exchange is attempted, both the original animal and its substitute shall be treated as sacred, without the right of being bought back."

34 These are the commandments which the LORD gave Moses on Mount Sinai for the Israelites.

v 1-8. This is in regard to a special vow made by a person for himself, his child or his servant, to do duties in the sanctuary, sweeping etc., and how they were evaluated according to age and sex. A person could be redeemed by paying whatever is his set valuation in verses 3-7. Fifty shekels for a male 20-65 years of age would be fifty months wages, so a person would not be attempted to make rash vows. However, special rate was given for a poor person, v 8, according to what the priest would in compassion determine. An alternative to dedicating a person would be direct fulfillment of the vow by service in the sanctuary as in the case of Hannah’s vow to dedicate Samuel, 1 Sam. 1:11, and as Absalom lied he would do, 2 Sam. 15:8. Could Hannah have rescinded her Nazarite vow on Samuel by paying only 5 shekels? This is uncertain.  As a Levite, he would still serve in some capacity after age 20.

 

 

 

v 9-13. A clean beast offered by vow could not be redeemed or exchanged for another, and if that was attempted, both animals would be under the vow. If it was an unclean beast it could not be sacrificed, but if a man wanted to redeem it, the priest would put a value on it, and the man must pay 120% of the value.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

v 14,15. A house sanctified to God would be valued by the priest, and it could be redeemed by paying 120% of the value.

 

 

 

v 16-21. The value of a field was based upon the value of the amount of barley seed required to sow that field for 49 years. This would be adjusted by the priest to the time until Jubilee, when it would revert back to him. Redeeming before then required 120%. If it was not redeemed or if it was sold, it could not be redeemed again, but at Jubilee it would be holy to the Lord and was given to the priest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

v 22-24. A man could redeem purchased land on the same basis, but if it was not vowed by the previous owner, it would revert back to that owner in Jubilee.

 

 

 

v 25. All evaluations were in silver according to the sanctuary silver, which value we are not able to know for certain today.

v 26,27. Firstborn of clean beasts could not be vowed, because they already belonged to the Lord, but unclean firstborn could be redeemed by paying 120%. The exception to this would be an ass colt, which must be redeemed by a lamb or have it’s neck broken, Ex. 13:13 and Ex. 34:20. This same rule would apply in Num. 18:15

v 28,29. Nothing irrevocably devoted to God could be redeemed. This death sentence did not apply to a child or servant, but to the public enemies of Israel, such as the city of Jericho, appointed by God, or by sentence of the congregation. See my comments on Judges 11:30-39 on how law of vows might have applied to Jephthah.

 

v 30-31. Tithe of seed or fruits of the land could be redeemed by paying 120%.

 

v 32-33. Ascertaining tithe of the flock was made by having them pass under a rod, and every tenth one was given a mark, regardless of whether it was good or bad. This has a similarity to “gate cut” today, but a designated number are cut out all at once. As in dedicating a clean beast, verses 9,10, it could not be changed or both would be obligated to the Lord, and it could not be redeemed.

v 34. Several rules in Leviticus seem to have been ordered arbitrarily by the Lord, though He may have had a purpose we don’t fully understand. Nevertheless, they are what God commanded Moses, and His word shall stand.