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Followers of Tradition

Now the Pharisees and some of the scribes came from Jerusalem and gathered around Him, and they had seen that some of His disciples ate their bread with [ceremonially] impure hands, that is, unwashed [and defiled according to Jewish religious ritual]. ([a]For the Pharisees and all of the Jews do not eat unless they [b]carefully wash their hands, holding firmly to the traditions of the elders; and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they [c]cleanse themselves [completely according to ritual]; and there are many other things [oral, man-made laws and traditions handed down to them] which they follow diligently, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper utensils.) So the Pharisees and scribes asked Jesus, “Why do Your disciples not live their lives according to the tradition of the elders, but [instead] eat their bread with [ceremonially] unwashed hands?” He replied, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites (play-actors, pretenders), as it is written [in Scripture],

These people honor Me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me.

They worship Me in vain [their worship is meaningless and worthless, a pretense],
Teaching the precepts of men as doctrines [giving their traditions equal weight with the Scriptures].’(A)

You disregard and neglect the commandment of God, and cling [faithfully] to the tradition of men.”

He was also saying to them, “You are experts at setting aside and nullifying the commandment of God in order to keep your [man-made] tradition and regulations. 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother [with respect and gratitude]’; and, ‘He who speaks evil of his father or mother must be put to death’;(B) 11 but you [Pharisees and scribes] say, ‘If a man tells his father or mother, “Whatever I have that would help you is Corban, (that is to say, already a gift to God),”’ 12 then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother [since helping them would violate his vow of Corban]; 13 so you nullify the [authority of the] word of God [acting as if it did not apply] because of your tradition which you have handed down [through the elders]. And you do many things such as that.”

The Heart of Man

14 After He called the people to Him again, He began saying to them, “Listen [carefully] to Me, all of you, [hear] and understand [what I am saying]: 15 there is nothing outside a man [such as food] which by going into him can defile him [morally or spiritually]; but the things which come out of [the heart of] a man are what defile and dishonor him. 16 [d][If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”]

17 When Jesus had left the crowd and gone into the [e]house, His disciples asked Him about the parable. 18 And He said to them, “Are you, too, so foolish and lacking in understanding? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile and dishonor him, 19 since it does not enter his heart, but [only] his stomach, and [from there it] is eliminated?” (By this, He declared all foods [f]ceremonially clean.) 20 And He said, “Whatever comes from [the heart of] a man, that is what defiles and dishonors him. 21 For from within, [that is] out the heart of men, come base and malevolent thoughts and schemes, acts of sexual immorality, thefts, murders, adulteries, 22 acts of greed and covetousness, wickedness, deceit, unrestrained conduct, envy and jealousy, slander and profanity, arrogance and self-righteousness and foolishness (poor judgment). 23 All these evil things [schemes and desires] come from within and defile and dishonor the man.”

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Footnotes

  1. Mark 7:3 Mark explains Jewish customs and translates Hebrew terms for his Gentile readers.
  2. Mark 7:3 Lit with the fist. This probably refers either to the method of washing the hands or, perhaps more likely, to the volume of water used.
  3. Mark 7:4 The Greek word used is baptize, which in this context refers to an immersion ritual normally performed in a miqveh, a special bathtub large enough for the purpose and filled with water that was to be collected naturally. The miqvehs typically were built into the ground outside where they could collect rain water.
  4. Mark 7:16 Early mss do not contain this verse.
  5. Mark 7:17 It was probably Peter’s house.
  6. Mark 7:19 I.e. He abolished all prohibitions given in the Law against certain foods.

That Which Defiles(A)

The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled,(B) that is, unwashed. (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders.(C) When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.[a])(D)

So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders(E) instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”

He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:

“‘These people honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
    their teachings are merely human rules.’[b](F)

You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”(G)

And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe[c] your own traditions!(H) 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’[d](I) and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’[e](J) 11 But you say(K) that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)— 12 then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. 13 Thus you nullify the word of God(L) by your tradition(M) that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”

14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” [16] [f]

17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him(N) about this parable. 18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19 For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods(O) clean.)(P)

20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed,(Q) malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

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Footnotes

  1. Mark 7:4 Some early manuscripts pitchers, kettles and dining couches
  2. Mark 7:7 Isaiah 29:13
  3. Mark 7:9 Some manuscripts set up
  4. Mark 7:10 Exodus 20:12; Deut. 5:16
  5. Mark 7:10 Exodus 21:17; Lev. 20:9
  6. Mark 7:16 Some manuscripts include here the words of 4:23.

Blessings of Obedience

26 [a]‘You shall not make idols for yourselves, nor shall you erect an image, a sacred pillar or an obelisk, nor shall you place any figured stone in your land so that you may bow down to it; for I am the Lord your God. You shall keep My Sabbaths and have reverence for My sanctuary. I am the Lord. If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments and [obediently] do them, then I will give you rain in its season, and the land will yield her produce and the trees of the field bear their fruit. And your threshing season will last until grape gathering and the grape gathering [time] will last until planting, and you will eat your bread and be filled and live securely in your land. I will also grant peace in the land, so that you may lie down and there will be no one to make you afraid. I will also eliminate harmful animals from the land, and no sword will pass through your land. And you will chase your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will put ten thousand to flight; your enemies will fall before you by the sword. For I will turn toward you [with favor and regard] and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will establish and confirm My covenant with you.(A) 10 You will eat the old supply of [abundant] produce, and clear out the old [to make room] for the new. 11 I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject nor separate itself from you. 12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people. 13 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves; and I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk upright [with heads held high as free men].

Penalties of Disobedience

14 ‘But if you do not obey Me and do not [obediently] do all these commandments, 15 if, instead, you reject My statutes, and if your soul rejects My ordinances, so that you will not [obediently] do all My commandments, and in this way break My covenant, 16 I, in turn, will do this to you: I will appoint over you sudden terror, consumption, and fever that will waste away the eyes and cause the soul to languish also. And you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat what you plant. 17 I will set My face against you so that [b]you will be struck down before your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one is pursuing you.(B) 18 If in spite of all this you still will not listen to Me and be obedient, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19 I will break your pride in your power, and I will make your sky like iron [giving no rain and blocking all prayers] and your ground like bronze [hard to plow and yielding no produce].(C) 20 Your strength will be spent uselessly, for your land will not yield its produce and the trees of the land will not yield their fruit.

21 ‘If then, you act with hostility toward Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you seven times in accordance with your sins. 22 I will let loose the [wild] animals of the field among you, which will bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you so few in number that your roads will lie deserted and desolate.(D)

23 ‘And if by these things you are not turned to Me, but act [c]with hostility against Me, 24 then I also will act with hostility against you, and I will strike you seven times for your sins. 25 I will bring a sword on you that will execute vengeance for [breaking] the covenant; and when you gather together in your cities, I will send pestilence (virulent disease) among you, and you shall be handed over to the enemy.(E) 26 When I break your staff of bread [that is, cut off your supply of food], ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will ration your bread; and you will eat and not be satisfied.(F)

27 ‘Yet if in spite of this you will not [attentively] listen to Me but act with hostility against me, 28 then I will act with hostility against you in wrath, and I also will punish you seven times for your sins. 29 You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.(G) 30 I will destroy your high places [devoted to idolatrous worship], and cut down your incense altars, and heap your dead bodies upon the [crushed] bodies of your idols, and My soul will detest you [with deep and unutterable loathing].(H) 31 I will lay waste your cities as well and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your sweet and soothing aromas [of offerings by fire].(I) 32 I will make the land desolate, and your enemies who settle in it will be appalled at it. 33 I will scatter you among the nations and draw out the sword [of your enemies] after you; your land will become desolate and your cities will become ruins.(J)

34 ‘Then the land [of Israel] will enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate, it will have rest, the rest it did not have on your Sabbaths, while you were living on it.(K) 36 As for those who are left of you, I will bring despair (lack of courage, weakness) into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; the sound of a scattered leaf will put them to flight, and they will flee as if [running] from the sword, and will fall even when no one is chasing them. 37 They shall stumble over one another as if to escape from a sword when no one is chasing them; and you will have no power to stand before your enemies. 38 You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will consume you. 39 Those of you who are left will rot away because of their wickedness in the lands of your enemies; also because of the wickedness of their forefathers they will rot away like them.

40 ‘If they confess their wickedness and the wickedness of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they have committed against Me—and also in their acting with hostility toward Me— 41 I also was acting with hostility toward them and brought them into the land of their enemies—then if their uncircumcised (sin-filled) hearts are humbled and they accept the punishment for their wickedness,(L) 42 then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham, and remember the land.(M) 43 But the land will be abandoned by them and will enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them; and they will accept the punishment for their wickedness and make amends because they rejected My ordinances and their soul rejected My statutes. 44 Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so despise them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God.(N) 45 But I will, for their sake, [earnestly] remember the covenant with their forefathers, whom I have brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the Lord.’”

46 These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws which the Lord established between Himself and the Israelites through Moses at Mount Sinai.

Rules concerning Valuations

27 Again, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘When a man makes a [d]special vow [consecrating himself or a member of his family], he shall be valued according to your [established system of] valuation of people belonging to the Lord [that is, the priest accepts from the man making the vow a specified amount of money for the temple treasury in place of the actual person]. If your valuation is of a male between twenty and sixty years of age, then your valuation shall be fifty shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. Or if the person is a female, then your valuation shall be thirty shekels. If the person is between five years and twenty years of age, then your valuation for the male shall be twenty shekels and for the female ten shekels. But if the child is between one month and five years of age, then your valuation shall be five shekels of silver for the male and three shekels for the female. If the person is sixty years old and above, your valuation shall be fifteen shekels for the male, and ten shekels for the female. But if the person is too poor to pay your valuation, then he shall be placed before the priest, and the priest shall value him; according to the ability of the one who vowed, the priest shall value him.

‘Now if it is an animal of the kind which men can present as an offering to the Lord, any such that one gives to the Lord shall be holy. 10 He shall not replace it or exchange it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good; but if he does exchange an animal for an animal, then both the original offering and its substitute shall be holy. 11 If it is any unclean animal of the kind which men do not present as an offering to the Lord, then he shall bring the animal before the priest, 12 and the priest shall value it as either good or bad; it shall be as you, the priest, value it. 13 But if he ever wishes to redeem it, then he shall add one-fifth of it to your valuation.

14 ‘If a man consecrates his house as sacred to the Lord, the priest shall appraise it as either good or bad; as the priest appraises it, so shall it stand. 15 If the one who consecrates his house should wish to redeem it, then he shall add one-fifth of your valuation price to it, so that it may be his.

16 ‘And if a man consecrates to the Lord part of a field of his own property, then your valuation shall be proportionate to the seed needed for it; a homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. 17 If he consecrates his field during the Year of Jubilee, it shall stand according to your valuation. 18 But if he consecrates his field after the Jubilee, then the priest shall calculate the price for him in proportion to the years that remain until the Year of Jubilee; and it shall be deducted from your valuation. 19 If the one who consecrates the field should ever wish to redeem it, then he shall add one-fifth of the appraisal price to it, so that it may return to him. 20 If he does not redeem the field, but has sold it to another man, it may no longer be redeemed. 21 When the field reverts in the Jubilee, the field shall be holy to the Lord, like a field set apart (devoted); the priest shall possess it as his property. 22 Or if a man consecrates to the Lord a field which he has bought, which is not part of the field of his [ancestral] property, 23 then the priest shall calculate for him the amount of your valuation up to the Year of Jubilee; and the man shall give that [amount] on that day as a holy thing to the Lord. 24 In the Year of Jubilee the field shall return to the one from whom it was purchased, to whom the land belonged [as his ancestral inheritance]. 25 Every valuation of yours shall be in accordance with the sanctuary shekel; twenty gerahs shall make a shekel.

26 ‘However, the firstborn among animals, which as a firstborn belongs to the Lord, no man may consecrate, whether an ox or a sheep. It is [already] the Lord’s. 27 If it is among the unclean animals, the owner may redeem it in accordance with your valuation, and add one-fifth to it; or if it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold in accordance with your valuation.

28 ‘But nothing that a man [e]sets apart [that is, devotes as an offering] to the Lord out of all that he has, of man or of animal or of the fields of his own property, shall be sold or redeemed. Anything devoted to destruction (banned, cursed) is most holy to the Lord. 29 No one who may have been set apart among men shall be ransomed [from death], he shall most certainly be put to death.

30 ‘And all the tithe (tenth part) of the land, whether the seed of the land or the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord.(O) 31 If a man wishes to redeem any part of his tithe, he shall add one-fifth to it. 32 For every tithe of the herd or flock, whatever [f]passes under the [shepherd’s] staff, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord.(P) 33 The man is not to be concerned whether the animal is good or bad, nor shall he exchange it. But if he does exchange it, then both it and its substitute shall become holy; it shall not be redeemed.’”

34 These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses on Mount Sinai for the children of Israel.(Q)

Footnotes

  1. Leviticus 26:1 Through Moses God explains clearly how He will bless the Israelites for their faithful obedience and repeatedly emphasizes that His blessings are contingent on Israel’s responsiveness. If the Israelites want God’s blessings, they must not take Him for granted.
  2. Leviticus 26:17 These verses specify the penalties for disobedience. The Scripture references indicate where the fulfillments of these prophecies are recorded. God keeps His word, whether a blessing or a judgment.
  3. Leviticus 26:23 Lit contrary to and so throughout the chapter.
  4. Leviticus 27:2 Or explicit. A man could consecrate (dedicate) himself to the Lord or he could consecrate another family member, his house, his property, his animals, his field, or other possession. The priest set an established value on the person, animal, or property and the man paid the set amount instead of transferring ownership. Consecrating someone or something to the Lord was not the same as “devoting” or “setting apart” something to the Lord (see vv 21, 28).
  5. Leviticus 27:28 In OT times “devoting” or “setting apart” was a different and much more serious act than “consecrating” something or someone to God. The thing “devoted” belonged exclusively to God. It was an irrevocable command or vow. Anyone who kept for himself something that had been “devoted” or placed under a ban, placed himself under a sentence of death (Josh 7).
  6. Leviticus 27:32 Each tenth animal was marked as it passed through a small door.

Reward for Obedience

26 “‘Do not make idols(A) or set up an image(B) or a sacred stone(C) for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone(D) in your land to bow down before it. I am the Lord your God.

“‘Observe my Sabbaths(E) and have reverence for my sanctuary.(F) I am the Lord.

“‘If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey(G) my commands, I will send you rain(H) in its season,(I) and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit.(J) Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want(K) and live in safety in your land.(L)

“‘I will grant peace in the land,(M) and you will lie down(N) and no one will make you afraid.(O) I will remove wild beasts(P) from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country. You will pursue your enemies,(Q) and they will fall by the sword before you. Five(R) of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.(S)

“‘I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers,(T) and I will keep my covenant(U) with you. 10 You will still be eating last year’s harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new.(V) 11 I will put my dwelling place[a](W) among you, and I will not abhor you.(X) 12 I will walk(Y) among you and be your God,(Z) and you will be my people.(AA) 13 I am the Lord your God,(AB) who brought you out of Egypt(AC) so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke(AD) and enabled you to walk with heads held high.

Punishment for Disobedience

14 “‘But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands,(AE) 15 and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws(AF) and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant,(AG) 16 then I will do this to you: I will bring on you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever(AH) that will destroy your sight and sap your strength.(AI) You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.(AJ) 17 I will set my face(AK) against you so that you will be defeated(AL) by your enemies;(AM) those who hate you will rule over you,(AN) and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you.(AO)

18 “‘If after all this you will not listen to me,(AP) I will punish(AQ) you for your sins seven times over.(AR) 19 I will break down your stubborn pride(AS) and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze.(AT) 20 Your strength will be spent in vain,(AU) because your soil will not yield its crops, nor will the trees of your land yield their fruit.(AV)

21 “‘If you remain hostile(AW) toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over,(AX) as your sins deserve. 22 I will send wild animals(AY) against you, and they will rob you of your children, destroy your cattle and make you so few(AZ) in number that your roads will be deserted.(BA)

23 “‘If in spite of these things you do not accept my correction(BB) but continue to be hostile toward me, 24 I myself will be hostile(BC) toward you and will afflict you for your sins seven times over. 25 And I will bring the sword(BD) on you to avenge(BE) the breaking of the covenant. When you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague(BF) among you, and you will be given into enemy hands. 26 When I cut off your supply of bread,(BG) ten women will be able to bake your bread in one oven, and they will dole out the bread by weight. You will eat, but you will not be satisfied.

27 “‘If in spite of this you still do not listen to me(BH) but continue to be hostile toward me, 28 then in my anger(BI) I will be hostile(BJ) toward you, and I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over.(BK) 29 You will eat(BL) the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.(BM) 30 I will destroy your high places,(BN) cut down your incense altars(BO) and pile your dead bodies[b] on the lifeless forms of your idols,(BP) and I will abhor(BQ) you. 31 I will turn your cities into ruins(BR) and lay waste(BS) your sanctuaries,(BT) and I will take no delight in the pleasing aroma of your offerings.(BU) 32 I myself will lay waste the land,(BV) so that your enemies who live there will be appalled.(BW) 33 I will scatter(BX) you among the nations(BY) and will draw out my sword(BZ) and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste,(CA) and your cities will lie in ruins.(CB) 34 Then the land will enjoy its sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate(CC) and you are in the country of your enemies;(CD) then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. 35 All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest(CE) it did not have during the sabbaths you lived in it.

36 “‘As for those of you who are left, I will make their hearts so fearful in the lands of their enemies that the sound of a windblown leaf(CF) will put them to flight.(CG) They will run as though fleeing from the sword, and they will fall, even though no one is pursuing them.(CH) 37 They will stumble over one another(CI) as though fleeing from the sword, even though no one is pursuing them. So you will not be able to stand before your enemies.(CJ) 38 You will perish(CK) among the nations; the land of your enemies will devour you.(CL) 39 Those of you who are left will waste away in the lands of their enemies because of their sins; also because of their ancestors’(CM) sins they will waste away.(CN)

40 “‘But if they will confess(CO) their sins(CP) and the sins of their ancestors(CQ)—their unfaithfulness and their hostility toward me, 41 which made me hostile(CR) toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies—then when their uncircumcised hearts(CS) are humbled(CT) and they pay(CU) for their sin, 42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob(CV) and my covenant with Isaac(CW) and my covenant with Abraham,(CX) and I will remember the land. 43 For the land will be deserted(CY) by them and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them. They will pay for their sins because they rejected(CZ) my laws and abhorred my decrees.(DA) 44 Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies,(DB) I will not reject them or abhor(DC) them so as to destroy them completely,(DD) breaking my covenant(DE) with them. I am the Lord their God. 45 But for their sake I will remember(DF) the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of Egypt(DG) in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.’”

46 These are the decrees, the laws and the regulations that the Lord established at Mount Sinai(DH) between himself and the Israelites through Moses.(DI)

Redeeming What Is the Lord’s

27 The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If anyone makes a special vow(DJ) to dedicate a person to the Lord by giving the equivalent value, set the value of a male between the ages of twenty and sixty at fifty shekels[c] of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel[d];(DK) for a female, set her value at thirty shekels[e]; for a person between the ages of five and twenty, set the value of a male at twenty shekels[f](DL) and of a female at ten shekels[g]; for a person between one month and five years, set the value of a male at five shekels[h](DM) of silver and that of a female at three shekels[i] of silver; for a person sixty years old or more, set the value of a male at fifteen shekels[j] and of a female at ten shekels. If anyone making the vow is too poor to pay(DN) the specified amount, the person being dedicated is to be presented to the priest, who will set the value(DO) according to what the one making the vow can afford.

“‘If what they vowed is an animal that is acceptable as an offering to the Lord,(DP) such an animal given to the Lord becomes holy.(DQ) 10 They must not exchange it or substitute a good one for a bad one, or a bad one for a good one;(DR) if they should substitute one animal for another, both it and the substitute become holy. 11 If what they vowed is a ceremonially unclean animal(DS)—one that is not acceptable as an offering to the Lord—the animal must be presented to the priest, 12 who will judge its quality as good or bad. Whatever value the priest then sets, that is what it will be. 13 If the owner wishes to redeem(DT) the animal, a fifth must be added to its value.(DU)

14 “‘If anyone dedicates their house as something holy to the Lord, the priest will judge its quality as good or bad. Whatever value the priest then sets, so it will remain. 15 If the one who dedicates their house wishes to redeem it,(DV) they must add a fifth to its value, and the house will again become theirs.

16 “‘If anyone dedicates to the Lord part of their family land, its value is to be set according to the amount of seed required for it—fifty shekels of silver to a homer[k] of barley seed. 17 If they dedicate a field during the Year of Jubilee, the value that has been set remains. 18 But if they dedicate a field after the Jubilee,(DW) the priest will determine the value according to the number of years that remain(DX) until the next Year of Jubilee, and its set value will be reduced. 19 If the one who dedicates the field wishes to redeem it,(DY) they must add a fifth to its value, and the field will again become theirs. 20 If, however, they do not redeem the field, or if they have sold it to someone else, it can never be redeemed. 21 When the field is released in the Jubilee,(DZ) it will become holy,(EA) like a field devoted to the Lord;(EB) it will become priestly property.

22 “‘If anyone dedicates to the Lord a field they have bought, which is not part of their family land, 23 the priest will determine its value up to the Year of Jubilee,(EC) and the owner must pay its value on that day as something holy to the Lord. 24 In the Year of Jubilee the field will revert to the person from whom it was bought,(ED) the one whose land it was. 25 Every value is to be set according to the sanctuary shekel,(EE) twenty gerahs(EF) to the shekel.

26 “‘No one, however, may dedicate the firstborn of an animal, since the firstborn already belongs to the Lord;(EG) whether an ox[l] or a sheep, it is the Lord’s. 27 If it is one of the unclean animals,(EH) it may be bought back at its set value, adding a fifth of the value to it. If it is not redeemed, it is to be sold at its set value.

28 “‘But nothing that a person owns and devotes[m](EI) to the Lord—whether a human being or an animal or family land—may be sold or redeemed; everything so devoted is most holy(EJ) to the Lord.

29 “‘No person devoted to destruction[n] may be ransomed; they are to be put to death.(EK)

30 “‘A tithe(EL) of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy(EM) to the Lord. 31 Whoever would redeem(EN) any of their tithe must add a fifth of the value(EO) to it. 32 Every tithe of the herd and flock—every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd’s rod(EP)—will be holy to the Lord. 33 No one may pick out the good from the bad or make any substitution.(EQ) If anyone does make a substitution, both the animal and its substitute become holy and cannot be redeemed.(ER)’”

34 These are the commands the Lord gave Moses at Mount Sinai(ES) for the Israelites.(ET)

Footnotes

  1. Leviticus 26:11 Or my tabernacle
  2. Leviticus 26:30 Or your funeral offerings
  3. Leviticus 27:3 That is, about 1 1/4 pounds or about 575 grams; also in verse 16
  4. Leviticus 27:3 That is, about 2/5 ounce or about 12 grams; also in verse 25
  5. Leviticus 27:4 That is, about 12 ounces or about 345 grams
  6. Leviticus 27:5 That is, about 8 ounces or about 230 grams
  7. Leviticus 27:5 That is, about 4 ounces or about 115 grams; also in verse 7
  8. Leviticus 27:6 That is, about 2 ounces or about 58 grams
  9. Leviticus 27:6 That is, about 1 1/4 ounces or about 35 grams
  10. Leviticus 27:7 That is, about 6 ounces or about 175 grams
  11. Leviticus 27:16 That is, probably about 300 pounds or about 135 kilograms
  12. Leviticus 27:26 The Hebrew word can refer to either male or female.
  13. Leviticus 27:28 The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord.
  14. Leviticus 27:29 The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them.