Laws About Vows
27 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: When a man makes a special vow to the Lord based on the equivalent value[a] of persons, 3 then the equivalent value of a male from twenty to sixty years old shall be fifty shekels[b] of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel.[c] 4 If the person is a female, then the equivalent value shall be thirty shekels.[d] 5 If the person is five to twenty years old, then the equivalent value shall be twenty shekels[e] for a male and ten shekels[f] for a female. 6 If the person is one month to five years old, then the equivalent value shall be five shekels[g] for a male and three shekels[h] of silver for a female. 7 If the person is sixty years old or older, then the equivalent value shall be fifteen shekels[i] for a male and ten shekels for a female. 8 But if he is too poor to afford the equivalent value, then he shall present himself before the priest and the priest shall set his value. According to what the person making the vow can afford, so the priest shall set his value.
9 And if it be an animal, of which men bring an offering to the Lord, all that any man gives of such to the Lord shall be holy. 10 He shall not exchange it nor substitute it, good for bad or bad for good. If he in fact substitutes an animal for another, then both it and its substitute shall be holy. 11 If it is any sort of unclean animal that is not permitted as an offering to the Lord, then he shall present the animal before the priest. 12 And the priest shall set its value, whether good or bad; according to the equivalent value set by the priest, so shall it be. 13 But if he plans on redeeming it, then he shall add one-fifth to the equivalent value.
14 When a man consecrates his house as holy to the Lord, then the priest shall set its value, whether good or bad, according to the equivalent value set by the priest, so shall it be established. 15 If he who consecrates the house should redeem it, then he shall add one-fifth to its equivalent value, and it shall be his.
16 If a man shall consecrate to the Lord some of his land, then the equivalent value shall be according to the seed needed to sow it: fifty shekels of silver per homer[j] of barley seed. 17 If he consecrates his field from the Year of Jubilee, the equivalent value shall stay fixed, 18 but if he consecrates his field after the Jubilee, then the priest shall calculate for him the price according to the years that remain until the next Year of Jubilee, and the equivalent value shall be reduced. 19 And if he who consecrated the field plans on redeeming it, then he shall add one-fifth to the equivalent value, and it will be established as his. 20 If he does not redeem the field, but rather sells the field to another man, it may not be redeemed again. 21 But when the field is released in the Jubilee, it shall be holy to the Lord as a devoted field; it shall become the possession of the priest.
22 If a man consecrates to the Lord a field that he purchased, which is not part of his land property, 23 then the priest shall calculate for him the amount of the valuation, up to the Year of Jubilee, and he shall give your valuation 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 bought, to him to whom the property of land belongs. 25 All your estimations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: Twenty gerahs[k] shall be one shekel.
26 A firstborn of animals, which as firstborn belongs to the Lord, no man may consecrate; whether ox or sheep, it is the Lord’s. 27 If it is among the unclean animals, then he shall ransom it at the equivalent value and shall add one-fifth to it, but if it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold at the equivalent value.
28 Anything that a man shall devote to the Lord from all that he has, whether human, animal, or land, shall not be sold or redeemed. Every devoted thing is most holy to the Lord.
29 No one devoted of men, who shall be doomed to death, shall be redeemed; he shall surely be put to death.
30 Any tithe of the land, whether seed of the land or fruit of the trees, belongs to the Lord. It is holy to the Lord. 31 If a man plans on redeeming some of his tithe, he shall add one-fifth to it. 32 Any tithe of herd or flock, all that passes under the counting staff, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord. 33 A person shall not differentiate between good or bad, nor shall he make a substitute for it, but if he does, then both it and its substitute shall be holy. It shall not be redeemed.
34 These are the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel on Mount Sinai.
Footnotes
- Leviticus 27:2 Shorthand for the formula in Lev 5:15.
- Leviticus 27:3 About 1¼ pounds, or 575 grams; and in v. 16.
- Leviticus 27:3 About ⅖ ounce, or 12 grams; and in v. 25.
- Leviticus 27:4 About 12 ounces, or 345 grams.
- Leviticus 27:5 About 8 ounces, or 230 grams.
- Leviticus 27:5 About 4 ounces, or 115 grams; and in v. 7.
- Leviticus 27:6 About 2 ounces, or 58 grams.
- Leviticus 27:6 About 1¼ ounces, or 35 grams.
- Leviticus 27:7 About 6 ounces, or 175 grams.
- Leviticus 27:16 Likely about 300 pounds, or 135 kilograms.
- Leviticus 27:25 About 150 ounce or 0.6 gram.