Rules concerning Valuations

27 Again, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘When a man makes a ^[a]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]. ³ 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. ⁴ Or if the person is a female, then your valuation shall be thirty shekels. ⁵ 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. ⁶ 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. ⁷ If the person is sixty years old and above, your valuation shall be fifteen shekels for the male, and ten shekels for the female. ⁸ 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.

⁹ ‘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 ^[b]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.^{(A) 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 ^[c]passes under the [shepherd’s] staff, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord.^{(B) 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.^(C)

The Census of Israel’s Warriors

1 The Lord spoke [by special revelation] to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai in the Tent of Meeting (tabernacle) on the first day of the second month in the second year after the ^[a]Israelites came out of the land of Egypt, saying, ² “Take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, by their families (clans), by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, every male, ^[b]head by head ³ from twenty years old and upward, all in Israel who are able to go out to war. You and Aaron shall number them, army by army. ⁴ And with you there shall be a man [to assist you] from each tribe, each being the head of his father’s household. ⁵ These then are the names of the men who shall stand with you: from [the tribe of] Reuben, Elizur the son of Shedeur; ⁶ from [the tribe of] Simeon, Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai; ⁷ from [the tribe of] Judah, Nahshon the son of Amminadab; ⁸ from [the tribe of] Issachar, Nethanel the son of Zuar; ⁹ from [the tribe of] Zebulun, Eliab the son of Helon; ¹⁰ from the sons (descendants) of Joseph: from [the tribe of] ^[c]Ephraim, Elishama the son of Ammihud; from [the tribe of] Manasseh, Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur; ¹¹ from [the tribe of] Benjamin, Abidan the son of Gideoni; ¹² from [the tribe of] Dan, Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai; ¹³ from [the tribe of] Asher, Pagiel the son of Ochran; ¹⁴ from [the tribe of] Gad, Eliasaph the son of Deuel; ¹⁵ from [the tribe of] Naphtali, Ahira the son of Enan. ¹⁶ These men were the ones called from the congregation, the leaders of their fathers’ (ancestors’) tribes; they were the heads of thousands [the highest ranking officers] in Israel.”

¹⁷ So Moses and Aaron took these men who were designated by name, ¹⁸ and assembled all the congregation on the first day of the second month, and they registered by ancestry in their families (clans), by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names from twenty years old and upward, head by head, ¹⁹ just as the Lord had commanded Moses. So he numbered them in the Wilderness of Sinai.

²⁰ The sons of Reuben, Israel’s (Jacob’s) firstborn, their generations, by their families (clans), by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, head by head, every male from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war: ²¹ those of the tribe of Reuben numbered 46,500.

²² Of the sons of Simeon, their descendants, by their families (clans), by their fathers’ households, their numbered men according to the number of names, head by head, every male from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war: ²³ those of the tribe of Simeon numbered 59,300.

²⁴ Of the sons of Gad, their descendants, by their families (clans), by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war: ²⁵ those of the tribe of Gad numbered 45,650.

²⁶ Of the sons of Judah, their descendants, by their families (clans), by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war: ²⁷ those of the tribe of Judah numbered 74,600.

²⁸ Of the sons of Issachar, their descendants, by their families (clans), by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war: ²⁹ those of the tribe of Issachar numbered 54,400.

³⁰ Of the sons of Zebulun, their descendants, by their families (clans), by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war: ³¹ those of the tribe of Zebulun numbered 57,400.

³² Of the sons of Joseph: the sons (descendants) of Ephraim, their descendants, by their families (clans), by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war: ³³ those of the tribe of Ephraim numbered 40,500.

³⁴ Of the sons of Manasseh, their descendants, by their families (clans), by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war: ³⁵ those of the tribe of Manasseh numbered 32,200.

³⁶ Of the sons of Benjamin, their descendants, by their families (clans), by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war: ³⁷ those of the tribe of Benjamin numbered 35,400.

³⁸ Of the sons of Dan, their descendants, by their families (clans), by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war: ³⁹ those of the tribe of Dan numbered 62,700.

⁴⁰ Of the sons of Asher, their descendants, by their families (clans), by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war: ⁴¹ those of the tribe of Asher numbered 41,500.

⁴² Of the sons of Naphtali, their descendants, by their families (clans), by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war: ⁴³ those of the tribe of Naphtali numbered 53,400.

⁴⁴ These were the ones who were numbered, whom Moses and Aaron numbered, with the leaders of Israel, twelve men, each representing his fathers’ household. ⁴⁵ So all those numbered of the sons of Israel, by their fathers’ households, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war in Israel, ⁴⁶ all who were numbered were 603,550.

Levites Exempted

⁴⁷ The Levites, however, were not numbered among them by their fathers’ tribe. ⁴⁸ For the Lord had said to Moses, ⁴⁹ “Only the tribe of Levi you shall not number, nor shall you take their census among the sons of Israel [since they are unavailable to go to war]. ⁵⁰ But appoint the Levites over the tabernacle (sanctuary) of the Testimony, and over all its furnishings and all things that belong to it. They shall carry the tabernacle [when traveling] and all its furnishings, and they shall take care of it and camp around it. ⁵¹ When the tabernacle is to go forward, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle is to [be set up for] camp, the Levites shall set it up. But the layman (non-Levite) who approaches the tabernacle shall be put to death. ⁵² The Israelites shall camp according to their armies, every man by his own camp and every man by his own [tribal] standard (banner). ⁵³ But the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the Testimony, so that there will be no wrath against the congregation of the Israelites. The Levites shall be in charge of the tabernacle of the Testimony.” ⁵⁴ Thus the sons of Israel did these things; according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so they did.