Leviticus 27:1-13

Laws About Vows

1 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

2 "Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, If anyone ¹makes a special vow to the LORD involving the valuation of persons,

3 then the valuation of a male from twenty years old up to sixty years old shall be fifty shekels^[a] of silver, according to the ²shekel of the sanctuary.

4 If the person is a female, the valuation shall be thirty shekels.

5 If the person is from five years old up to twenty years old, the valuation shall be for a male twenty shekels, and for a female ten shekels.

6 If the person is from a month old up to five years old, the valuation shall be for a male five shekels of silver, and for a female the valuation shall be three shekels of silver.

7 And if the person is sixty years old or over, then the valuation for a male shall be fifteen shekels, and for a female ten shekels.

8 And if someone is too poor to pay the valuation, then he shall be made to stand before the priest, and the priest shall value him; the priest shall value him according to what the vower can afford.

9 "If the vow^[b] is an animal that may be offered as an offering to the LORD, all of it that he gives to the LORD is holy.

10 ³He shall not exchange it or make a substitute for it, good for bad, or bad for good; and if he does in fact substitute one animal for another, then both it and the substitute shall be holy.

11 And if it is any unclean animal that may not be offered as an offering to the LORD, then he shall stand the animal before the priest,

12 and the priest shall value it as either good or bad; as the priest values it, so it shall be.

13 ⁴But if he wishes to redeem it, he shall add a ⁵fifth to the valuation.

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Leviticus 27:1-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO LEVEITICUS 27

This chapter contains various laws concerning vows made unto the Lord, whether of persons whose estimation was to be made by the priest, according to their age, sex, and condition, Le 26:1-8; or of beasts, clean and unclean, good or bad, Le 26:9-13; or of houses, fields, and lands, the estimation of which was to be according to its seed, and the time of its being set apart, whether from or after the year of jubilee, and the number of years to it, Le 26:14-25; with this exception to the above laws, that no firstling of the Lord's might be sanctified, and if an unclean beast it might be redeemed, but nothing devoted to the Lord, whether of man, beast, or field, might be sold or redeemed, Le 26:26-29; and the chapter is concluded with some laws concerning the redemption or change of tithes, what might or what might not be redeemed or changed, Le 26:30-34;

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 5

1. [Judg. 11:30, 31, 39; 1 Samuel 1:11, 28; See Numbers 30]
2. ver. 25; See Exodus 30:13
3. ver. 33
4. ver. 15, 19
5. Leviticus 22:14

Footnotes 2

[a]. A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams
[b]. Hebrew it

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.