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Leviticus 27 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Laws About Vows

Lev 27:1The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Lev 27:2“Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, If anyone makes a special vow to the LORD involving the valuation of persons,
Lev 27:3then the valuation of a male from twenty years old up to sixty years old shall be fifty shekels[fn] of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary.
Lev 27:4If the person is a female, the valuation shall be thirty shekels.
Lev 27:5If the person is from five years old up to twenty years old, the valuation shall be for a male twenty shekels, and for a female ten shekels.
Lev 27:6If the person is from a month old up to five years old, the valuation shall be for a male five shekels of silver, and for a female the valuation shall be three shekels of silver.
Lev 27:7And if the person is sixty years old or over, then the valuation for a male shall be fifteen shekels, and for a female ten shekels.
Lev 27:8And if someone is too poor to pay the valuation, then he shall be made to stand before the priest, and the priest shall value him; the priest shall value him according to what the vower can afford.
Lev 27:9“If the vow[fn] is an animal that may be offered as an offering to the LORD, all of it that he gives to the LORD is holy.
Lev 27:10He shall not exchange it or make a substitute for it, good for bad, or bad for good; and if he does in fact substitute one animal for another, then both it and the substitute shall be holy.
Lev 27:11And if it is any unclean animal that may not be offered as an offering to the LORD, then he shall stand the animal before the priest,
Lev 27:12and the priest shall value it as either good or bad; as the priest values it, so it shall be.
Lev 27:13But if he wishes to redeem it, he shall add a fifth to the valuation.
Lev 27:14“When a man dedicates his house as a holy gift to the LORD, the priest shall value it as either good or bad; as the priest values it, so it shall stand.
Lev 27:15And if the donor wishes to redeem his house, he shall add a fifth to the valuation price, and it shall be his.
Lev 27:16“If a man dedicates to the LORD part of the land that is his possession, then the valuation shall be in proportion to its seed. A homer[fn] of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver.
Lev 27:17If he dedicates his field from the year of jubilee, the valuation shall stand,
Lev 27:18but if he dedicates his field after the jubilee, then the priest shall calculate the price according to the years that remain until the year of jubilee, and a deduction shall be made from the valuation.
Lev 27:19And if he who dedicates the field wishes to redeem it, then he shall add a fifth to its valuation price, and it shall remain his.
Lev 27:20But if he does not wish to redeem the field, or if he has sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed anymore.
Lev 27:21But the field, when it is released in the jubilee, shall be a holy gift to the LORD, like a field that has been devoted. The priest shall be in possession of it.
Lev 27:22If he dedicates to the LORD a field that he has bought, which is not a part of his possession,
Lev 27:23then the priest shall calculate the amount of the valuation for it up to the year of jubilee, and the man shall give the valuation on that day as a holy gift to the LORD.
Lev 27:24In the year of jubilee the field shall return to him from whom it was bought, to whom the land belongs as a possession.
Lev 27:25Every valuation shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs[fn] shall make a shekel.
Lev 27:26“But a firstborn of animals, which as a firstborn belongs to the LORD, no man may dedicate; whether ox or sheep, it is the LORD’s.
Lev 27:27And if it is an unclean animal, then he shall buy it back at the valuation, and add a fifth to it; or, if it is not redeemed, it shall be sold at the valuation.
Lev 27:28“But no devoted thing that a man devotes to the LORD, of anything that he has, whether man or beast, or of his inherited field, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted thing is most holy to the LORD.
Lev 27:29No one devoted, who is to be devoted for destruction[fn] from mankind, shall be ransomed; he shall surely be put to death.
Lev 27:30“Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the LORD’s; it is holy to the LORD.
Lev 27:31If a man wishes to redeem some of his tithe, he shall add a fifth to it.
Lev 27:32And every tithe of herds and flocks, every tenth animal of all that pass under the herdsman’s staff, shall be holy to the LORD.
Lev 27:33One shall not differentiate between good or bad, neither shall he make a substitute for it; and if he does substitute for it, then both it and the substitute shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.”
Lev 27:34These are the commandments that the LORD commanded Moses for the people of Israel on Mount Sinai.
ESV Footnotes
A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams
Hebrew it
A homer was about 6 bushels or 220 liters
A gerah was about 1/50 ounce or 0.6 gram
That is, set apart (devoted) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction)
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