Vows, Valuations, and What Belongs to the Lord

27:1 The Lord spoke to Moses: 27:2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When a man makes a special votive offering based on the conversion value of persons to the Lord, 27:3 the conversion value of the male from twenty years old up to sixty years old is fifty shekels by the standard of the sanctuary shekel. 27:4 If the person is a female, the conversion value is thirty shekels. 27:5 If the person is from five years old up to twenty years old, the conversion value of the male is twenty shekels, and for the female ten shekels. 27:6 If the person is one month old up to five years old, the conversion value of the male is five shekels of silver, and for the female the conversion value is three shekels of silver. 27:7 If the person is from sixty years old and older, if he is a male the conversion value is fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels. 27:8 If he is too poor to pay the conversion value, he must stand the person before the priest and the priest will establish his conversion value; according to what the man who made the vow can afford, the priest will establish his conversion value. 27:9 “‘If what is vowed is a kind of animal from which an offering may be presented to the Lord, anything which he gives to the Lord from this kind of animal will be holy. 27:10 He must not replace or exchange it, good for bad or bad for good, and if he does indeed exchange one animal for another animal, then both the original animal and its substitute will be holy. 27:11 If what is vowed is an unclean animal from which an offering must not be presented to the Lord, then he must stand the animal before the priest, 27:12 and the priest will establish its conversion value, whether good or bad. According to the assessed conversion value of the priest, thus it will be. 27:13 If, however, the person who made the vow redeems the animal, he must add one fifth to its conversion value. 27:14 “‘If a man consecrates his house as holy to the Lord, the priest will establish its conversion value, whether good or bad. Just as the priest establishes its conversion value, thus it will stand. 27:15 If the one who consecrates it redeems his house, he must add to it one fifth of its conversion value in silver, and it will belong to him. 27:16 “‘If a man consecrates to the Lord some of his own landed property, the conversion value must be calculated in accordance with the amount of seed needed to sow it, a homer of barley seed being priced at fifty shekels of silver. 27:17 If he consecrates his field in the jubilee year, the conversion value will stand, 27:18 but if he consecrates his field after the jubilee, the priest will calculate the price for him according to the years that are left until the next jubilee year, and it will be deducted from the conversion value. 27:19 If, however, the one who consecrated the field redeems it, he must add to it one fifth of the conversion price and it will belong to him. 27:20 If he does not redeem the field, but sells the field to someone else, he may never redeem it. 27:21 When it reverts in the jubilee, the field will be holy to the Lord like a permanently dedicated field; it will become the priest’s property. 27:22 “‘If he consecrates to the Lord a field he has purchased, which is not part of his own landed property, 27:23 the priest will calculate for him the amount of its conversion value until the jubilee year, and he must pay the conversion value on that jubilee day as something that is holy to the Lord. 27:24 In the jubilee year the field will return to the one from whom he bought it, the one to whom it belongs as landed property. 27:25 Every conversion value must be calculated by the standard of the sanctuary shekel; twenty gerahs to the shekel. 27:26 “‘Surely no man may consecrate a firstborn that already belongs to the Lord as a firstborn among the animals; whether it is an ox or a sheep, it belongs to the Lord. 27:27 If, however, it is among the unclean animals, he may ransom it according to its conversion value and must add one fifth to it, but if it is not redeemed it must be sold according to its conversion value. 27:28 “‘Surely anything which a man permanently dedicates to the Lord from all that belongs to him, whether from people, animals, or his landed property, must be neither sold nor redeemed; anything permanently dedicated is most holy to the Lord. 27:29 Any human being who is permanently dedicated must not be ransomed; such a person must be put to death. 27:30 “‘Any tithe of the land, from the grain of the land or from the fruit of the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord. 27:31 If a man redeems part of his tithe, however, he must add one fifth to it. 27:32 All the tithe of herd or flock, everything which passes under the rod, the tenth one will be holy to the Lord. 27:33 The owner must not examine the animals to distinguish between good and bad, and he must not exchange it. If, however, he does exchange it, both the original animal and its substitute will be holy. It must not be redeemed.’” 27:34 These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses to tell the Israelites at Mount Sinai.

Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible®, copyright ©1996, 2019 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved.

Leviticus 27 teaches that vows to the Lord are serious and regulated. People, animals, houses, and land could be vowed and often redeemed at a priestly value, but firstborn animals, tithes, and things permanently devoted to the Lord belonged to him in a stricter way. The chapter shows that holiness reaches into speech, economics, property, and giving.

This chapter closes Leviticus by showing that holiness reaches into speech, economics, property, and giving. A vow was not a light promise. If a person pledged someone or something to the Lord, the priest set a value for it. The value changed by age and sex for persons, but this did not mean one human being mattered more than another. It reflected ordinary labor and the economic life of Israel.

If the person who vowed was poor, the priest could lower the valuation to what he could afford. This shows both seriousness and mercy. For clean animals fit for sacrifice, once they were vowed they became holy and could not be exchanged. If an exchange was made, both animals became holy. Unclean animals could also be valued, and the owner could redeem them by paying the value plus one fifth.

The same pattern applied to houses and to land. Houses could be consecrated and later redeemed with an added fifth. Land was more complex because Israel’s land was tied to family inheritance and to the jubilee year. If a field was redeemed, the owner again paid one fifth more. If it was not redeemed, the rules of jubilee and priestly ownership applied. Purchased land returned to the original family at jubilee. This guarded the land order God had established for Israel.

The chapter also says that firstborn animals already belonged to the Lord, so they could not be vowed as though they were ordinary property. The tithe belonged to the Lord too. The owner must not inspect, choose between, or exchange the animals that pass under the rod. The point is that people must not treat holy things as if they were their own to manage however they wished.

The most difficult part is the law about things permanently devoted to the Lord. Such things could not be redeemed or sold. In the case of a human being, the text is brief and severe. It should be read as covenant-ban language within the law of Moses, not as a general model for personal violence. The chapter ends by saying these are the commands the Lord gave Israel through Moses at Sinai.

• Vows to the Lord were real obligations, not casual words.
• Priests helped assign valuations, and the poor could receive a reduced valuation.
• Clean vowed animals became holy and could not be exchanged without loss.
• Unclean vowed animals, houses, and some land could be redeemed by paying the value plus one fifth.
• Land vows had to respect Israel’s inheritance pattern and the jubilee year.
• Firstborn animals already belonged to the Lord and could not be vowed again.
• Tithes belonged to the Lord and were to be treated as holy.
• Things permanently devoted to the Lord were not to be treated as ordinary property.

• Do not make vows lightly.
• Do not exchange or manipulate what has been vowed to the Lord.
• Do not treat holy things as if they were ordinary property.
• Give the tithe as belonging to the Lord.
• Do not inspect, choose between, or exchange the tithe animals that pass under the rod.
• Do not read verse 29 as a general warrant for violence; keep it within the severe covenant-ban setting of Torah.

Leviticus ends by teaching that the Lord owns his people, their land, and their increase. Vows, redemption, firstborn, and tithes all show that holiness includes what a person says, gives, keeps, and manages economically. These laws prepare the Bible’s larger pattern of belonging to God, priestly mediation, and costly redemption.

God’s people should keep their promises to him. They should not use religious words to control outcomes or to keep what they have claimed for themselves. Stewardship should be reverent and honest. What is given to God should be treated as holy, not as something to be managed for convenience.

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