Leviticus 27
Common English Bible
Dedications
27 The Lord said to Moses, 2 Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When a person makes a solemn promise to the Lord involving the value of a person, 3 if it is the value for a male between 20 and 60 years old, his value is fifty silver shekels according to the sanctuary’s shekel. 4 If the person is a female, her value is thirty shekels. 5 If the age of the person is between 5 and 20 years, the value for a male is twenty shekels, for a female ten shekels. 6 If the age of the person is between one month and 5 years, the value for a male is five silver shekels, for a female three silver shekels. 7 If the age of the person is 60 years or more, the value is fifteen shekels if the person is male, ten shekels for a female. 8 But if financial difficulty prevents the promise maker from giving the full value, they must set the person before the priest. The priest will assign the person a value according to what the promise maker can afford.
9 If a solemn promise involves livestock that can be offered to the Lord, any such animal given to the Lord will be considered holy. 10 The promise maker cannot replace or substitute for it, either good for bad or bad for good. But if one should substitute one animal for another, both it and the substitute will be holy. 11 If the solemn promise involves any kind of unclean animal that cannot be offered to the Lord, the promise maker must set the animal before the priest. 12 The priest will assign it a value, whether high or low.[a] Its value will be what the priest says. 13 If the promise maker wishes to buy it back, they must add one-fifth to its value.
14 When someone dedicates their house to the Lord as holy, the priest will assign a value to it, whether high or low. The value is fixed, whatever value the priest assigns to it. 15 If the one who dedicates the house wishes to buy it back, they must add one-fifth to its valued price, and it will be theirs again.
16 If a person dedicates part of the land from their family property to the Lord, the value will be set according to the seed needed to plant it: fifty silver shekels per homer of barley seed. 17 If the person dedicates the piece of land during the Jubilee year, its value will stay fixed. 18 But if the person dedicates the piece after the Jubilee year, the priest will calculate the price according to the years that are left until the next Jubilee year, and the value will be reduced. 19 If the one who dedicates the land wishes to buy it back, they must add one-fifth to its valued price, and it will be theirs again. 20 But if they do not buy it back or if it was sold to someone else, it is no longer able to be bought back. 21 When the piece of land is released in the Jubilee year, it will be holy to the Lord like a piece of devoted land; it will be the priest’s property. 22 If the person dedicates land they purchased to the Lord—land that is not part of their family property— 23 the priest will calculate the amount of its value until the Jubilee year. The person must pay the value on that day as a holy donation to the Lord. 24 In the Jubilee year the piece of land will return to the seller, to the one who is the original owner of the family property. 25 Every value will be according to the sanctuary’s shekel. The shekel will be twenty gerahs.
26 But note that a person cannot dedicate any oldest offspring from livestock, which already belongs to the Lord because it is the oldest. Whether ox or sheep, it belongs to the Lord. 27 If it is an unclean animal, it may be bought back at its value plus twenty percent. If it is not bought back, it will be sold at its set value.
28 Also note that everything someone devotes[b] to the Lord from their possessions—whether humans, animals, or pieces of land from their family property—cannot be sold or bought back. Every devoted thing is most holy to the Lord. 29 No human beings that have been devoted can be bought back; they must be executed.
30 All tenth-part gifts[c] from the land, whether of seed from the ground or fruit from the trees, belong to the Lord; they are holy to the Lord. 31 If someone wishes to buy back part of their tenth-part gift, they must add one-fifth to it. 32 All tenth-part gifts from a herd or flock—every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd’s staff—will be holy to the Lord. 33 The one bringing the tenth-part gift must not pick out the good from the bad, and cannot substitute any animal. But if one should substitute an animal, both it and the substitute will be holy and cannot be bought back.
34 These are the commands that the Lord gave Moses on Mount Sinai for the Israelites.
Footnotes
- Leviticus 27:12 Or good or bad; also in 27:14
- Leviticus 27:28 Or places under the ban (also in 27:29), a technique of holy war, in which all is dedicated to the deity who helps in the battle; it often involved total destruction.
- Leviticus 27:30 Or tithes
Leviticus 27
King James Version
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.
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