Leviticus 27
Contemporary English Version
Making Promises to the Lord
27 The Lord told Moses 2 to say to the community of Israel:
If you ever want to free someone who has been promised to me, 3-7 you may do so by paying the following amounts, weighed according to the official standards:
50 pieces of silver for men
ages 20 to 60,
and 30 pieces for women;
20 pieces of silver
for young men ages 5 to 20,
and 10 pieces
for young women;
15 pieces of silver for men
ages 60 and above
and 10 pieces for women;
5 pieces of silver for boys
ages 1 month to 5 years,
and 3 pieces for girls.
8 If you have promised to give someone to me and can't afford to pay the full amount for that person's release, you will be taken to a priest, and he will decide how much you can afford.
9 If you promise to sacrifice an animal to me, it becomes holy, and there is no way you can set it free. 10 If you try to substitute any other animal, no matter how good, for the one you promised, they will both become holy and must be sacrificed. 11 Donkeys are unfit for sacrifice, so if you promise me a donkey,[a] you must bring it to the priest, 12 and let him determine its value. 13 But if you want to buy it back, you must pay an additional 20 percent.
14 If you promise a house to me, a priest will set the price, whatever the condition of the house. 15 But if you decide to buy it back, you must pay an additional 20 percent.
16 If you promise part of your family's land to me, its value must be determined by the amount of seed needed to plant the land, and the rate will be ten pieces of silver for every 20 kilograms of seed. 17 If this promise is made in the Year of Celebration,[b] the land will be valued at the full price. 18 But any time after that, the price will be figured according to the number of years before the next Year of Celebration. 19 If you decide to buy back the land, you must pay the price plus an additional 20 percent, 20 but you cannot buy it back once someone else has bought it. 21 When the Year of Celebration comes, the land becomes holy because it belongs to me, and it will be given to the priests.
22 If you promise me a field that you have bought, 23 its value will be decided by a priest, according to the number of years before the next Year of Celebration, and the money you pay will be mine. 24 However, on the next Year of Celebration, the land will go back to the family of its original owner. 25 Every price will be set by the official standards.
Various Offerings
The Lord said:
26 All first-born animals of your flocks and herds are already mine, and so you cannot promise any of them to me. 27 If you promise me a donkey,[c] you may buy it back by adding an additional 20 percent to its value. If you don't buy it back, it can be sold to someone else for whatever a priest has said it is worth.
28 (A) Anything that you completely dedicate to me must be completely destroyed.[d] It cannot be bought back or sold. Every person, animal, and piece of property that you dedicate completely is only for me. 29 In fact, any humans who have been promised to me in this way must be put to death.
30 (B) Ten percent of everything you harvest is holy and belongs to me, whether it grows in your fields or on your fruit trees. 31 If you want to buy back this part of your harvest, you may do so by paying what it is worth plus an additional 20 percent.
32 When you count your flocks and herds, one out of ten of every newborn animal[e] is holy and belongs to me, 33 no matter how good or bad it is. If you substitute one animal for another, both of them become holy, and neither can be bought back.
34 Moses was on Mount Sinai when the Lord gave him these laws for the people of Israel.
Footnotes
- 27.11 Donkeys … donkey: The Hebrew text has “If you promise me an unclean animal,” which probably refers to a donkey (see Exodus 13.13; 34.20).
- 27.17 Year of Celebration: See 25.8-34.
- 27.27 donkey: See the note at 27.11.
- 27.28 completely dedicate … completely destroyed: In order to show that something belonged completely to the Lord and could not be used by anyone else, it was destroyed. This law most often applied to towns and people captured in war (see Joshua 6.16,17).
- 27.32 one out of ten of every newborn animal: Or “one out of every ten animals.”
Leviticus 27
English Standard Version
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.
Footnotes
- Leviticus 27:3 A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams
- Leviticus 27:9 Hebrew it
- Leviticus 27:16 A homer was about 6 bushels or 220 liters
- Leviticus 27:25 A gerah was about 1/50 ounce or 0.6 gram
- Leviticus 27:29 That is, set apart (devoted) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction)
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