2 Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, When any one devoteth [anything] by a vow, the persons shall be for Jehovah according to thy valuation.
3 And thy valuation shall be of the male from twenty years old even unto sixty years old: thy valuation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary;
4 and if it be of a female, thy valuation shall be thirty shekels.
5 And if it be from five years old even unto twenty years old, thy valuation of the male shall be twenty shekels, and for the female ten shekels.
6 And if it be from a month old even unto five years old, thy valuation of the male shall be five shekels of silver; and for the female thy valuation shall be three shekels of silver.
7 And if it be from sixty years old and above, if it be a male, thy valuation shall be fifteen shekels; and for the female ten shekels.
8 And if he be poorer than thy valuation, he shall present himself before the priest, and the priest shall value him: according to his means that vowed shall the priest value him.
9 And if it be a beast whereof men bring an offering unto Jehovah, all that they give of such unto Jehovah shall be holy.
10 They shall not alter it nor change it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good; and if he at all change beast for beast, then it and the exchange thereof shall be holy.
11 And if it be any unclean beast, of which they do not bring an offering unto Jehovah, then he shall present the beast before the priest;
12 and the priest shall value it, [judging] between good and bad: according to the valuation of the priest, so shall it be.
13 And if they will in any wise redeem it, then they shall add a fifth [part] thereof unto thy valuation.
14 And when any one halloweth his house, that it may be holy to Jehovah, the priest shall value it, [judging] between good and bad: as the priest shall value it, so shall it stand.
15 And if he that halloweth it will redeem his house, he shall add the fifth of the money of thy valuation unto it, and it shall be his.
16 And if a man hallow to Jehovah [part] of a field of his possession, thy valuation shall be according to what may be sown in it: the homer of barley seed at fifty shekels of silver.
17 If he hallow his field from the year of jubilee, according to thy valuation shall it stand;
18 but if he hallow his field after the jubilee, then the priest shall reckon unto him the money according to the years that remain, until the year of the jubilee; and there shall be a reduction from thy valuation.
19 And if he that hallowed the field will in any wise redeem it, he shall add the fifth of the money of thy valuation unto it, and it shall be assured to him;
20 but if he do not redeem the field, or if he sell the field to another man, it cannot be redeemed any more;
21 and the field, when it goeth out in the jubilee, shall be holy to Jehovah, as a field devoted; the possession thereof shall be the priest's.
22 And if he hallow to Jehovah a field that he hath bought, which is not of the fields of his possession,
23 the priest shall reckon unto him the amount of thy valuation, unto the year of the jubilee; and he shall give thy valuation on that day, [as] holy to Jehovah.
24 In the year of the jubilee the field shall return unto him of whom it was bought -- to him to whom the land belonged.
25 And all thy valuation shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall be the shekel.
26 Only the firstling which is offered as firstling to Jehovah among the cattle, that shall no man hallow, whether it be ox or sheep; it is Jehovah's.
27 But if it be of an unclean beast, then he shall ransom it according to thy valuation, and shall add a fifth of it thereto; and if it be not redeemed, it shall be sold according to thy valuation.
28 Notwithstanding, no devoted thing that a man hath devoted to Jehovah of all that he hath, of man or beast, or of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed: every devoted thing is most holy to Jehovah.
29 Nothing devoted, which shall be devoted from among men, shall be ransomed: it shall certainly be put to death.
30 And as to every tithe of the land, of the seed of the land, and of the fruit of the tree, it is Jehovah's: it is holy to Jehovah.
31 And if any one will at all redeem of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth thereof.
32 And as to every tithe of the herd, or of the flock, of whatever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy to Jehovah.
33 He 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 exchange thereof shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.
34 These are the commandments which Jehovah commanded Moses for the children of Israel upon mount Sinai.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Leviticus 27
Commentary on Leviticus 27 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 27
Le 27:1-18. Concerning Vows.
2-8. When a man shall make a singular vow, &c.—Persons have, at all times and in all places, been accustomed to present votive offerings, either from gratitude for benefits received, or in the event of deliverance from apprehended evil. And Moses was empowered, by divine authority, to prescribe the conditions of this voluntary duty.
the persons shall be for the Lord, &c.—better rendered thus:—"According to thy estimation, the persons shall be for the Lord." Persons might consecrate themselves or their children to the divine service, in some inferior or servile kind of work about the sanctuary (1Sa 3:1). In the event of any change, the persons so devoted had the privilege in their power of redeeming themselves; and this chapter specifies the amount of the redemption money, which the priest had the discretionary power of reducing, as circumstances might seem to require. Those of mature age, between twenty and sixty, being capable of the greatest service, were rated highest; young people, from five till twenty, less, because not so serviceable; infants, though devotable by their parents before birth (1Sa 1:11), could not be offered nor redeemed till a month after birth; old people were valued below the young, but above children; and the poor—in no case freed from payment, in order to prevent the rash formation of vows—were rated according to their means.
9-13. if it be a beast, whereof men bring an offering unto the Lord—a clean beast. After it had been vowed, it could neither be employed in common purposes nor exchanged for an equivalent—it must be sacrificed—or if, through some discovered blemish, it was unsuitable for the altar, it might be sold, and the money applied for the sacred service. If an unclean beast—such as an ass or camel, for instance, had been vowed, it was to be appropriated to the use of the priest at the estimated value, or it might be redeemed by the person vowing on payment of that value, and the additional fine of a fifth more.
14, 15. when a man shall sanctify his house to be holy unto the Lord, &c.—In this case, the house having been valued by the priest and sold, the proceeds of the sale were to be dedicated to the sanctuary. But if the owner wished, on second thought, to redeem it, he might have it by adding a fifth part to the price.
16-24. if a man shall sanctify unto the Lord some aprt of a field of his possession, &c.—In the case of acquired property in land, if not redeemed, it returned to the donor at the Jubilee; whereas the part of a hereditary estate, which had been vowed, did not revert to the owner, but remained attached in perpetuity to the sanctuary. The reason for this remarkable difference was to lay every man under an obligation to redeem the property, or stimulate his nearest kinsman to do it, in order to prevent a patrimonial inheritance going out from any family in Israel.
26, 27. Only the firstling of the beasts—These, in the case of clean beasts, being consecrated to God by a universal and standing law (Ex 13:12; 34:19), could not be devoted; and in that of unclean beasts, were subject to the rule mentioned (Le 27:11, 12).
28, 29. no devoted thing, that a man shall devote unto the Lord of all that he hath, … shall be sold or redeemed—This relates to vows of the most solemn kind—the devotee accompanying his vow with a solemn imprecation on himself not to fail in accomplishing his declared purpose.
29. shall surely be put to death—This announcement imported not that the person was to be sacrificed or doomed to a violent death; but only that he should remain till death unalterably in the devoted condition. The preceding regulations were evidently designed to prevent rashness in vowing (Ec 5:4) and to encourage serious and considerate reflection in all matters between God and the soul (Lu 21:4).
30-33. all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land—This law gave the sanction of divine authority to an ancient usage (Ge 14:20; 28:22). The whole produce of the land was subjected to the tithe tribute—it was a yearly rent which the Israelites, as tenants, paid to God, the owner of the land, and a thank offering they rendered to Him for the bounties of His providence. (See Pr 3:9; 1Co 9:11; Ga 6:6).
32. whatsoever passeth under the rod, &c.—This alludes to the mode of taking the tithe of cattle, which were made to pass singly through a narrow gateway, where a person with a rod, dipped in ochre, stood, and counting them, marked the back of every tenth beast, whether male or female, sound or unsound.
34. These are the commandments, &c.—The laws contained in this book, for the most part ceremonial, had an important spiritual bearing, the study of which is highly instructive (Ro 10:4; Heb 4:2; 12:18). They imposed a burdensome yoke (Ac 15:10), but yet in the infantine age of the Church formed the necessary discipline of "a schoolmaster to Christ" [Ga 3:24].