Leviticus 27 King James Version (KJV)
27 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When a man shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be for the Lord by thy estimation.
3 And thy estimation shall be of the male from twenty years old even unto sixty years old, even thy estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary.
4 And if it be a female, then thy estimation shall be thirty shekels.
5 And if it be from five years old even unto twenty years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male twenty shekels, and for the female ten shekels.
6 And if it be from a month old even unto five years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male five shekels of silver, and for the female thy estimation shall be three shekels of silver.
7 And if it be from sixty years old and above; if it be a male, then thy estimation shall be fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels.
8 But if he be poorer than thy estimation, then he shall present himself before the priest, and the priest shall value him; according to his ability that vowed shall the priest value him.
9 And if it be a beast, whereof men bring an offering unto the Lord, all that any man giveth of such unto the Lord shall be holy.
10 He shall not alter it, nor change it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good: and if he shall at all change beast for beast, then it and the exchange thereof shall be holy.
11 And if it be any unclean beast, of which they do not offer a sacrifice unto the Lord, then he shall present the beast before the priest:
12 And the priest shall value it, whether it be good or bad: as thou valuest it, who art the priest, so shall it be.
13 But if he will at all redeem it, then he shall add a fifth part thereof unto thy estimation.
14 And when a man shall sanctify his house to be holy unto the Lord, then the priest shall estimate it, whether it be good or bad: as the priest shall estimate it, so shall it stand.
15 And if he that sanctified it will redeem his house, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be his.
16 And if a man shall sanctify unto the Lord some part of a field of his possession, then thy estimation shall be according to the seed thereof: an homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver.
17 If he sanctify his field from the year of jubile, according to thy estimation it shall stand.
18 But if he sanctify his field after the jubile, then the priest shall reckon unto him the money according to the years that remain, even unto the year of the jubile, and it shall be abated from thy estimation.
19 And if he that sanctified the field will in any wise redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be assured to him.
20 And if he will not redeem the field, or if he have sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed any more.
21 But the field, when it goeth out in the jubile, shall be holy unto the Lord, as a field devoted; the possession thereof shall be the priest’s.
22 And if a man sanctify unto the Lord a field which he hath bought, which is not of the fields of his possession;
23 Then the priest shall reckon unto him the worth of thy estimation, even unto the year of the jubile: and he shall give thine estimation in that day, as a holy thing unto the Lord.
24 In the year of the jubile the field shall return unto him of whom it was bought, even to him to whom the possession of the land did belong.
25 And all thy estimations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall be the shekel.
26 Only the firstling of the beasts, which should be the Lord‘s firstling, no man shall sanctify it; whether it be ox, or sheep: it is the Lord‘s.
27 And if it be of an unclean beast, then he shall redeem it according to thine estimation, and shall add a fifth part of it thereto: or if it be not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to thy estimation.
28 Notwithstanding no devoted thing, that a man shall devote unto the Lord of all that he hath, both of man and beast, and of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed: every devoted thing is most holy unto the Lord.
29 None devoted, which shall be devoted of men, shall be redeemed; but shall surely be put to death.
30 And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord‘s: it is holy unto the Lord.
31 And if a man will at all redeem ought of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof.
32 And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord.
33 He shall not search whether it be good or bad, neither shall he change it: and if he change it at all, then both it and the change thereof shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.
34 These are the commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai.
Commentary
Valuations for things vowed (27:1-34)
People often vowed things to God out of gratitude for his goodness to them, usually in some crisis they had met. If the offering vowed was a person, this person was not to be offered in sacrifice but was to be redeemed, or bought back, by the payment of money to the sanctuary. The amount to be paid was estimated by the priests according to the usefulness of the person offered. The priests were to give special consideration to a poor person who could not pay the amount estimated (27:1-8).
Concerning the vowing of animals to God, if a person vowed a clean animal (that is, an animal eligible for sacrifice), he could not redeem it. He had either to offer the animal in sacrifice or give it to the priests, who could either keep it or sell it. All money from sales went into the sanctuary treasury. If any person, after vowing one thing, tried to offer something else instead, he lost both (9-10).
When a person vowed an unclean animal (that is, an animal not eligible for sacrifice, such as a camel or an ass), he had to give it to the priests, who again could either put it to work or sell it. Alternatively, the person who vowed it could buy it back at an estimated price, but he had to add a fine of one fifth of the animal’s value, because he kept for himself something he had vowed to God (11-13). Similar laws applied in the case of a vowed house (14-15).
Arrangements for a person who vowed land were much the same. If he wished to buy it back, the value depended on the number of years to the year of jubilee, when normally all land would return to the original owner. If the person who vowed the land did not buy it back, or if he sold it after vowing it, it did not return to him in the year of jubilee. It became the permanent property of the sanctuary (16-21). If the land a person vowed was not his originally and was not bought back by him after he vowed it, it returned to the original owner at the year of jubilee (22-25).
Firstlings of clean animals could not be vowed to God, since they were his already (Exod 13:2).
Firstlings of unclean animals could be vowed, then either bought back by the offerer or sold by the priests as in normal cases (26-27). Anything that was devoted to God for destruction could not be vowed, redeemed or sold (28-29).
The tithe (i.e. one tenth) of all produce and animals belonged to God. It could be kept for personal use only by payment of its value to the sanctuary, along with the usual fine (30-34).