Leviticus 27

Easy-to-Read Version

Promises Are Important

27 The Lord said to Moses, ²“Tell the Israelites: You might promise to give someone to the Lord as a servant. The priest must set a price for that person. ³The price for a man from 20 to 60 years old is 50 shekels^[a] of silver. (You must use the official measure for the silver.) ⁴The price for a woman who is 20 to 60 years old is 30 shekels. ⁵The price for a man from 5 to 20 years old is 20 shekels. For a woman the price is 10 shekels. ⁶The price for a boy from one month to five years old is 5 shekels. For a girl, the price is 3 shekels. ⁷The price for a man who is 60 years old or older is 15 shekels. The price for a woman is 10 shekels.

⁸“If anyone is too poor to pay the price, bring that person to the priest. The priest will decide how much money the person can afford to pay.

Gifts to the Lord

⁹“You might promise to give an animal to the Lord. If it is a clean animal—one that is acceptable as an offering to the Lord—then the animal you bring will become holy. ¹⁰You must not put any other animal in its place. Don’t try to trade a good animal for a bad one or a bad animal for a good one. If you try to change animals, both animals will become holy—they will both belong to the Lord.

¹¹“The animal you promised might be one that is not acceptable as an offering to the Lord. If you promised one of these unclean animals, you must bring it to the priest. ¹²The priest will decide a price for that animal. It doesn’t make any difference if the animal is good or bad. If the priest decides on a price, that is the price for the animal. ¹³If you want to buy back the animal,^[b] then you must add one-fifth to the price.

The Value of a House

¹⁴“If you dedicate your house as holy to the Lord, the priest must decide its price. It doesn’t make any difference if the house is good or bad. If the priest decides on a price, that is the price for the house. ¹⁵But if you want to get the house back, you must add one-fifth to the price. Then you will get the house back.

The Value of a Field

¹⁶“You might dedicate a field to the Lord. The value of this field will depend on how much seed is needed to plant it. It will be 50 shekels of silver for each homer^[c] of barley seed. ¹⁷If you give your field to God during the year of Jubilee, then its value will be whatever the priest decides. ¹⁸But if you give your field after the Jubilee, the priest must decide its exact price. He must count the number of years to the next year of Jubilee and use that number to decide the price. ¹⁹If you want to buy the field back, you must add one-fifth to that price. Then you will get the field back. ²⁰If you don’t buy the field back and the land is sold to someone else, you cannot get the land back. ²¹If you don’t buy the land back by the year of Jubilee, the field will remain holy to the Lord—it will belong to the priest forever. It will be treated like any other thing that was given completely to the Lord.

²²“If you dedicate a field to the Lord that you had bought, and it is not a part of your family’s property,^[d] ²³then the priest must count the years to the year of Jubilee and decide the price for the land. Then that land will belong to the Lord. ²⁴At the year of Jubilee, the land will go to the family that originally owned the land.

²⁵“You must use the official measure in paying these prices. The shekel by that measure weighs 20 gerahs.^[e]

Value of Animals

²⁶“You can give cattle and sheep as special gifts to the Lord. But if the animal is the firstborn, it already belongs to the Lord. So you cannot give these animals as special gifts. ²⁷If the firstborn animal is an unclean animal, you must buy back that animal. The priest will decide the price of the animal, and you must add one-fifth to that price. If you don’t buy that animal back, the priest will sell the animal for whatever price he decides.

Special Gifts

²⁸“There is a special kind of gift^[f] that people give to the Lord. It belongs only to him, and it cannot be bought back or sold. This gift belongs to the Lord. This type of gift includes people, animals, and fields from the family property. ²⁹If this gift is a person, that person cannot be bought back. That person must be killed.

³⁰“A tenth of all crops belongs to the Lord. This means the crops from fields and the fruit from trees—a tenth belongs to the Lord. ³¹So if you want to get back your tenth, you must add one-fifth to its price and then buy it back.

³²“The priests will take every tenth animal from a person’s cattle or sheep. Every tenth animal will belong to the Lord. ³³The owner should not worry if the chosen animal is good or bad or change the animal for another animal. If this happens, both animals will belong to the Lord. That animal cannot be bought back.”

³⁴These are the commands that the Lord gave Moses at Mount Sinai for the Israelites.

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Footnotes

Leviticus 27:3 shekel 2/5 of an ounce (11.5 g). Also in verse 16.
Leviticus 27:13 buy back the animal See Ex. 13:1-16 for the laws about giving to God or “buying back” firstborn children or animals.
Leviticus 27:16 homer A measure equal to about 7 bushels or about 60 gallons (220 l).
Leviticus 27:22 family’s property In ancient Israel, land was given by God to the family, not the individual. Usually it could not be sold, only leased for up to 50 years.
Leviticus 27:25 gerahs 1/50 of an ounce (.6 g).
Leviticus 27:28 special kind of gift This usually means things taken in war. These things (gifts) belonged only to the Lord, so they could not be used for anything else.

Numbers 1

Easy-to-Read Version

Moses Counts the Israelites

1 The Lord spoke to Moses in the Meeting Tent. This was in the desert of Sinai. It was on the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites left Egypt. He said to Moses: ²“Count all the Israelites. List the name of each man with his family and his family group. ³You and Aaron must count the men of Israel who are 20 years old or older. (These are all the men who are able to serve in the army of Israel.) List them by their divisions. ⁴One man from each tribe will help you. This man will be the leader of his tribe. ⁵These are the names of the men who will stand with you and help you:

from the tribe of Reuben—Elizur son of Shedeur;

⁶from the tribe of Simeon—Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai;

⁷from the tribe of Judah—Nahshon son of Amminadab;

⁸from the tribe of Issachar—Nethanel son of Zuar;

⁹from the tribe of Zebulun—Eliab son of Helon;

¹⁰from the descendants of Joseph:

from the tribe of Ephraim—Elishama son of Ammihud;

from the tribe of Manasseh—Gamaliel son of Pedahzur;

¹¹from the tribe of Benjamin—Abidan son of Gideoni;

¹²from the tribe of Dan—Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai;

¹³from the tribe of Asher—Pagiel son of Ocran;

¹⁴from the tribe of Gad—Eliasaph son of Deuel^[a];

¹⁵from the tribe of Naphtali—Ahira son of Enan.”

¹⁶All these men were the leaders of their families. The people also chose them to be leaders of their tribes. ¹⁷Moses and Aaron took the men who had been chosen to be leaders ¹⁸and called all the Israelites together on the first day of the second month. Then the people were listed by their families and their family groups. All the men who were 20 years old or older were listed. ¹⁹Moses did exactly what the Lord commanded—he counted the people while they were in the desert of Sinai.

²⁰The tribe of Reuben was counted. (Reuben was the firstborn son of Israel.) The names of all the men who were 20 years old or older and able to serve in the army were listed. They were listed with their families and family groups. ²¹The total number of men counted from the tribe of Reuben was 46,500.

²²The tribe of Simeon was counted. The names of all the men who were 20 years old or older and able to serve in the army were listed. They were listed with their families and family groups. ²³The total number of men counted from the tribe of Simeon was 59,300.

²⁴The tribe of Gad was counted. The names of all the men who were 20 years old or older and able to serve in the army were listed. They were listed with their families and family groups. ²⁵The total number of men counted from the tribe of Gad was 45,650.

²⁶The tribe of Judah was counted. The names of all the men who were 20 years old or older and able to serve in the army were listed. They were listed with their families and family groups. ²⁷The total number of men counted from the tribe of Judah was 74,600.

²⁸The tribe of Issachar was counted. The names of all the men who were 20 years old or older and able to serve in the army were listed. They were listed with their families and family groups. ²⁹The total number of men counted from the tribe of Issachar was 54,400.

³⁰The tribe of Zebulun was counted. The names of all the men who were 20 years old or older and able to serve in the army were listed. They were listed with their families and family groups. ³¹The total number of men counted from the tribe of Zebulun was 57,400.

³²The tribe of Ephraim was counted. (Ephraim was Joseph’s son.) The names of all the men who were 20 years old or older and able to serve in the army were listed. They were listed with their families and family groups. ³³The total number of men counted from the tribe of Ephraim was 40,500.

³⁴The tribe of Manasseh was counted. (Manasseh was also Joseph’s son.) The names of all the men who were 20 years old or older and able to serve in the army were listed. They were listed with their families and family groups. ³⁵The total number of men counted from the tribe of Manasseh was 32,200.

³⁶The tribe of Benjamin was counted. The names of all the men who were 20 years old or older and able to serve in the army were listed. They were listed with their families and family groups. ³⁷The total number of men counted from the tribe of Benjamin was 35,400.

³⁸The tribe of Dan was counted. The names of all the men who were 20 years old or older and able to serve in the army were listed. They were listed with their families and family groups. ³⁹The total number of men counted from the tribe of Dan was 62,700.

⁴⁰The tribe of Asher was counted. The names of all the men who were 20 years old or older and able to serve in the army were listed. They were listed with their families and family groups. ⁴¹The total number of men counted from the tribe of Asher was 41,500.

⁴²The tribe of Naphtali was counted. The names of all the men who were 20 years old or older and able to serve in the army were listed. They were listed by name with their families and family groups. ⁴³The total number of men counted from the tribe of Naphtali was 53,400.

⁴⁴Moses, Aaron, and the twelve leaders of Israel counted these men. (There was one leader from each tribe.) ⁴⁵They counted every man who was 20 years old or older and able to serve in the army. Each man was listed with his family. ⁴⁶The total number of men counted was 603,550 men.

⁴⁷The families from the tribe of Levi were not counted with the other Israelites. ⁴⁸The Lord had told Moses: ⁴⁹“Don’t count the men from the tribe of Levi or include them with the other Israelites. ⁵⁰Tell the Levites that they are responsible for the Tent of the Agreement. They must take care of that tent and everything that is with it. They must carry the Holy Tent and everything in it. They must make their camp around it and take care of it. ⁵¹Whenever the Holy Tent is moved, the Levites must do it. Whenever the Holy Tent is set up, the Levites must do it. They are the men who will take care of the Holy Tent. Anyone else who tries to take care of the tent must be killed. ⁵²The Israelites will make their camps in separate divisions. Everyone must camp near their family flag. ⁵³The Levites will set up their tents so that they surround the Tent of the Agreement. They will serve as guards and keep the people away from the Tent. This will protect the Israelites from the Lord’s anger.”