Leviticus 27:26

26 “You may not dedicate a firstborn animal to the LORD, for the firstborn of your cattle, sheep, and goats already belong to him.

Leviticus 27:26 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 27:26

Only the firstlings of the beasts
These are excepted from being sanctified, or set apart for sacred uses, for a very good reason, suggested in the next clause:

which should be the Lord's firstling, no man shall sanctify it;
it being what he has a claim upon, and ordered to be sanctified to him by a law previous to this, ( Exodus 13:2 ) ; wherefore to sanctify such a creature, would be to sanctify what was his before; not merely in a general sense, in which all creatures are his, but in a special sense, having in a peculiar manner required it as his; and therefore to sanctify, or vow to him, what was his before, must be trifling with him, and mocking of him:

whether [it be] ox, or sheep;
the firstlings of either of them:

it [is] the Lord's;
which he has claimed as his own special and peculiar property, antecedent to any vow of its owner.

Leviticus 27:26 In-Context

24 In the Year of Jubilee the field must be returned to the person from whom he purchased it, the one who inherited it as family property.

25 (All the payments must be measured by the weight of the sanctuary shekel, which equals twenty gerahs.)

26 “You may not dedicate a firstborn animal to the LORD, for the firstborn of your cattle, sheep, and goats already belong to him.

27 However, you may buy back the firstborn of a ceremonially unclean animal by paying the priest’s assessment of its worth, plus 20 percent. If you do not buy it back, the priest will sell it at its assessed value.

28 “However, anything specially set apart for the LORD —whether a person, an animal, or family property—must never be sold or bought back. Anything devoted in this way has been set apart as holy, and it belongs to the LORD .