Laws About Vows

27 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, If anyone ^(A)makes a special vow to the Lord involving the valuation of persons, ³ then the valuation of a male from twenty years old up to sixty years old shall be fifty shekels^[a] of silver, according to the ^(B)shekel of the sanctuary. ⁴ If the person is a female, the valuation shall be thirty shekels. ⁵ If 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. ⁶ If 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. ⁷ And 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. ⁸ And 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.

⁹ “If the vow^[b] is an animal that may be offered as an offering to the Lord, all of it that he gives to the Lord is holy. ^10 (C)He 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. ¹¹ And 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, ¹² and the priest shall value it as either good or bad; as the priest values it, so it shall be. ^13 (D)But if he wishes to redeem it, he shall add a ^(E)fifth to the valuation.

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. ^15 (F)And if the donor wishes to redeem his house, he shall add a ^(G)fifth to the valuation price, and it shall be his.

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^[c] of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. ¹⁷ If he dedicates his field from the year of jubilee, the valuation shall stand, ¹⁸ but if he dedicates his field after the jubilee, then the priest shall ^(H)calculate the price according to the years that remain until the year of jubilee, and a deduction shall be made from the valuation. ^19 (I)And if he who dedicates the field wishes to redeem it, then he shall add a ^(J)fifth to its valuation price, and it shall remain his. ²⁰ But 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. ²¹ But the field, ^(K)when it is released in the jubilee, shall be a holy gift to the Lord, like a field that has been ^(L)devoted. The priest shall be in ^(M)possession of it. ²² If he dedicates to the Lord a field that he has bought, ^(N)which is not a part of his possession, ^23 (O)then 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. ^24 (P)In the year of jubilee the field shall return to him from whom it was bought, to whom the land belongs as a possession. ²⁵ Every valuation shall be according to ^(Q)the shekel of the sanctuary: ^(R)twenty gerahs^[d] shall make a shekel.

²⁶ “But a ^(S)firstborn of animals, which as a firstborn belongs to the Lord, no man may dedicate; whether ox or sheep, it is the Lord's. ²⁷ And if it is an unclean animal, then he shall buy it back at the valuation, ^(T)and add a fifth to it; or, if it is not redeemed, it shall be sold at the valuation.

²⁸ “But ^(U)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. ^29 (V)No one devoted, who is to be devoted for destruction^[e] from mankind, shall be ransomed; he shall surely be put to death.

^30 (W)“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. ³¹ If a man wishes to redeem some of his tithe, he shall add a fifth to it. ³² And every tithe of herds and flocks, every tenth animal of all that ^(X)pass under the herdsman's staff, shall be holy to the Lord. ³³ One shall not differentiate between good or bad, ^(Y)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.”

^34 (Z)These are the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses for the people of Israel ^(AA)on Mount Sinai.

The Lord's Faithfulness Endures Forever

A Man of God Confronts Jeroboam

13 And behold, ^(A)a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel. Jeroboam was standing by the altar ^(B)to make offerings. ^2 (C)And the man cried against the altar by the word of the Lord and said, “O altar, altar, thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, ^(D)Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.’” ³ And he gave ^(E)a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign that the Lord has spoken: ‘Behold, the altar shall be torn down, and the ashes that are on it shall be poured out.’” ⁴ And when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him.” And his hand, which he stretched out against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back to himself. ⁵ The altar also was torn down, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. ⁶ And the king said to the man of God, ^(F)“Entreat now the favor of the Lord your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” And the man of God entreated the Lord, and the king's hand was restored to him and became as it was before. ⁷ And the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me, and refresh yourself, and ^(G)I will give you a reward.” ⁸ And the man of God said to the king, ^(H)“If you give me half your house, ^(I)I will not go in with you. And I will not eat bread or drink water in this place, ⁹ for so was it commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water nor return by the way that you came.’” ¹⁰ So he went another way and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel.

The Prophet's Disobedience

¹¹ Now ^(J)an old prophet lived in Bethel. And his sons^[a] came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told to their father the words that he had spoken to the king. ¹² And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed him the way that the man of God who came from Judah had gone. ¹³ And he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him and he mounted it. ¹⁴ And he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak. And he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” And he said, “I am.” ¹⁵ Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.” ¹⁶ And he said, ^(K)“I may not return with you, or go in with you, neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place, ¹⁷ for it was said to me ^(L)by the word of the Lord, ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by the way that you came.’” ¹⁸ And he said to him, “I also am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you into your house that he may eat bread and drink water.’” But he lied to him. ¹⁹ So he went back with him and ate bread in his house and drank water.

²⁰ And as they sat at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back. ²¹ And he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord and have not kept the command that the Lord your God commanded you, ²² but have come back and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’” ²³ And after he had eaten bread and drunk, he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back. ²⁴ And as he went away ^(M)a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his body was thrown in the road, and the donkey stood beside it; the lion also stood beside the body. ²⁵ And behold, men passed by and saw the body thrown in the road and the lion standing by the body. And they came and told it in the city where ^(N)the old prophet lived.

²⁶ And when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, “It is the man of God who disobeyed the word of the Lord; therefore the Lord has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word that the Lord spoke to him.” ²⁷ And he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And they saddled it. ²⁸ And he went and found his body thrown in the road, and the donkey and the lion standing beside the body. The lion had not eaten the body or torn the donkey. ²⁹ And the prophet took up the body of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back to the city^[b] to mourn and to bury him. ³⁰ And he laid the body in his own grave. And they mourned over him, saying, ^(O)“Alas, my brother!” ³¹ And after he had buried him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; ^(P)lay my bones beside his bones. ^32 (Q)For the saying that he called out by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against ^(R)all the houses of the high places that are in the cities of ^(S)Samaria shall surely come to pass.”

³³ After this thing Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but made priests for the high places again from among all the people. Any who would, he ordained to be priests of the high places. ^34 (T)And this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, ^(U)so as to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth.