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The Book of Leviticus

Leviticus Chapter 27

  

Fulfilling a Vow Offering

1
THE

Lord said to Moses,  2  “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When someone makes a special vow to dedicate an individual person to the Lord by giving equivalent values,  3  set the value of a male from twenty to sixty years old at fifty shekels of silver, measured according to the sanctuary shekel.  4  If the person is a female, set her value at thirty shekels.  5  If the person is from five years to twenty years old, set the value for a male at twenty shekels and for a female at ten shekels.  6  If the person is aged between one month and five years, age is from one month to five years old, set the value of a male at five shekels of silver and for a female three shekels of silver.  7  If the person is sixty years old or more, set the value of a male at fifteen shekels and ten shekels for a female.  8  But if someone is too poor to pay the set amount, he is to present the person before the priest, and the priest will set a value for him. The priest is to decide on a valuation according to the amount that the person can afford.

9‘If the vow concerns an animal that is acceptable as an offering to the Lord, such an animal that he gives to the Lord becomes holy.  10  He must not exchange it, or substitute a good one for a bad one, or a bad one for a good one. But if he does substitute one animal for another, both that animal and its substitute become holy.

11  ‘If the vow concerns an unclean animal that may not be brought as an offering to the Lord, the animal must be presented to the priest.  12  The priest will set a value on it, whether high or low, and whatever value the priest sets, that is what the price will be.  13  If the owner wishes to redeem the animal, he must add a fifth to the valuation.

14  ‘If a man dedicates his house as something holy to the Lord, the priest will assess its value, whether high or low. Whatever price is set by the priest, so it will remain.  15  If the man who dedicated his house wants to redeem it, then he must add a fifth to its assessed value, and the house will again become his.

16  ‘If a man dedicates to the Lord part of a field from his ancestral landholding, then your valuation is to be set according to the amount of seed needed to sow it: at the rate of fifty shekels of silver to a homer of barley seed.  17  If he dedicates his field during the Year of Jubilee, the assessment of the value will remain.  18  But if he dedicates his field after the Jubilee, the priest is to calculate the price for him according to the years that remain until the Year of Jubilee, and it will then be deducted from your valuation.  19  If the man who dedicates his field wishes to redeem it, then he must add a fifth to the valuation price, and the field will again become his.  20  But if he does not redeem the field, or if he has sold it to someone else, it can no longer be redeemed.  21  When the field is released in the Jubilee, it will become holy to the Lord, as a devoted field; it will become the property of the priests.

22  ‘If a man dedicates to the Lord a field he has bought that is not a part of his inherited landholding,  23  the priest is to calculate for him its value up to the Year of Jubilee, and the man must pay the amount of the valuation on that day as an offering holy to the Lord.  24  In the Year of Jubilee the field will return to the man from whom it was bought, the one who owned the land by inheritance.  25  All your valuations are to be set according to the measure of the sanctuary shekel, twenty gerahs to the shekel.

26  ‘But no one can dedicate the firstborn of animals, because the firstborn already belongs to the Lord; whether it is an ox or a sheep, it is the Lord’s.  27  If it is one of the unclean animals, he may redeem it according to your valuation, adding a fifth of the value to it. If it is not redeemed, then it is to be sold according your valuation.

28  ‘But nothing that a man owns and devotes to the Lord, whether a person, an animal, or the fields of his inheritance, may be sold or redeemed; everything that has been devoted is most holy to the Lord.

29  ‘No person who has been devoted to destruction may be ransomed; he must be put to death.

30  ‘A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord.  31  If a man decides to redeem any part of his tithe, he must add a fifth to its value.  32  The entire tithe of the herd or flockevery tenth animal that passes under the shepherd’s rodwill be holy to the Lord.  33  He must not inspect the animals to pick out which is good or bad or to make any substitutions. But if he does make a substitution, both the animal and its substitute will become holy and cannot be redeemed’.”

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