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The Third Book of Moses: Leviticus

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- Chapter 27 -

1
Yahweh also said to Moses,
2
“Tell the Israelite people these things for me: ’If a man solemnly promises to set apart another person to belong only to Yahweh, Yahweh will be willing to set that person free from having to do that if the responsible man pays the priest an amount of money. The priest must calculate the amount of money in terms of the silver pieces that they use in Yahweh’s sacred tent.
3
These are the amounts that Yahweh has set for this kind of transaction: fifty pieces of silver for men who are between twenty and sixty years old;
4
thirty pieces of silver for adult women who are between twenty and sixty years old.
5
Twenty pieces of silver would be paid for young men who are between five and twenty years old; ten pieces of silver for young women who are between five and twenty years old;
6
five pieces of silver for boys who are between one month and five years old; three pieces of silver for girls who are between one month and five years old.
7
Fifteen pieces of silver would be paid for men who are more than sixty years old; ten pieces of silver for women who are more than sixty years old.
8
If anyone who has made such a solemn promise is very poor and unable to pay to set free the person whom he has given to Yahweh, he must take that person to the priest. The priest will set the price for freeing him to an amount that the person can pay.
9
If someone solemnly promises Yahweh to give him an animal that is acceptable to him, that animal becomes very special to Yahweh; it belongs to him alone.
10
The person who promised to give it must not give another animal instead of the one that he promised. He must not substitute a bad one for a good one or even a better one than the one offered. If he tries to do that, both animals will become dedicated to Yahweh.
11
If the animal that he wishes to give to Yahweh is a kind that is unacceptable to be an offering, he must take the animal to the priest.
12
The priest then will decide what its value is, according to the animal’s quality. Whatever value the priest sets will be the value, and that is the price of the animal.
13
If the man who gave the animal later decides that he wants to buy it back, he must pay to the priest that price plus an added one-fifth.
14
Similarly, if someone dedicates his house, and to set it apart for the honor of Yahweh, the priest will decide how much it is worth, which will depend on the house’s condition. Whatever the priest says that it is worth, that will be its value.
15
If a man sets apart his house for the honor of Yahweh, but later he wants to buy it back, he must pay that price plus an added one-fifth, and then the house will belong to him again.
16
If someone sets apart for the honor of Yahweh some of the property that belongs to him and his family, its value will be determined by the quantity of seed that would be needed to sow that entire tract of land. It will be ten pieces of silver for each 220 liters of seed.
17
If the man sets apart for the honor of Yahweh the land during the year of the celebration of Jubilee, its value will be the full amount.
18
But if he sets apart his field to Yahweh after the year of the celebration of Jubilee, the priest will count the number of years until the next year of the celebration of Jubilee, and if there are not many years that remain, the price will be much lower than the full price.
19
If the person who set apart the field for Yahweh later wants to buy it back, he must pay to the priest the price that the priest says it is worth, plus an added one-fifth, and then the field will belong to that man again.
20
However, if he does not buy it back, or if it has been sold to someone else, he will never be permitted to buy it back again.
21
In the year of the celebration of Jubilee, it will be permanently set apart as a holy gift for Yahweh, and it will be given to the priest.
22
If someone sets apart for the honor of Yahweh some land that he has bought, land which is not part of the land that his family has always owned,
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the priest must count the number of years until the next year of the celebration of Jubilee to determine how much it is worth, and the man must pay that amount to the priest on that day, and then that land will belong to him again, and his payment becomes a holy gift to Yahweh.
24
However, in the year of the celebration of Jubilee, the land will again come into the possession of the person from whom he bought it, the person whose family had always owned that land.
25
All the silver that is paid must be calculated in terms of the official pieces of silver in the sacred tent.
26
No one is permitted to dedicate the firstborn of any cow or sheep for any purpose, because the firstborn already belongs to Yahweh.
27
If someone gives to him an animal that is not acceptable to him, that person may later buy it back by paying what it is worth plus an added one-fifth of its value. If he does not buy it back, it must be sold for its standard price.
28
However, no slave or animal or family land that someone owns can be sold or bought back after it has been dedicated to Yahweh. It becomes holy to Yahweh.
29
No person who has done something that Yahweh considers to be very wicked is permitted to go free. The people must certainly execute such a person.

Instruction on Tithes

(Deuteronomy 14:22–29; Deuteronomy 26:1–15; Nehemiah 13:10–14)
30
One tenth of all the crops and grain or fruit that is produced on anyone’s land is sacred and belongs to Yahweh.
31
If anyone wants to buy back any of that tenth, he must pay to the priest what it is worth plus an added one-fifth.
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And every ten domestic animals belongs to Yahweh. When a shepherd counts them as they pass under his walking stick, to decide which ones he will give to me, he must mark every tenth one as belonging to Yahweh.
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When he does that, he must not pick out the good ones or leave the bad ones, or substitute bad ones for good ones. If he substitutes one animal for another, both animals will belong to Yahweh, and the shepherd will not be permitted to buy them back.”
34
Those are the commands that Yahweh gave to Moses on Mount Sinai to tell to the people.
1
The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
2
Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, ‘When a man consecrates a person to the LORD in a vow, according to your valuation,
3
your valuation of a male from twenty years old to sixty years old shall be fifty shekels of silver, according to the shekel (a) of the sanctuary.
4
If she is a female, then your valuation shall be thirty shekels.
5
If the person is from five years old to twenty years old, then your valuation shall be for a male twenty shekels, and for a female ten shekels.
6
If the person is from a month old to five years old, then your valuation shall be for a male five shekels of silver, and for a female your valuation shall be three shekels of silver.
7
If the person is from sixty years old and upward; if he is a male, then your valuation shall be fifteen shekels, and for a female ten shekels.
8
But if he is poorer than your valuation, then he shall be set before the priest, and the priest shall assign a value to him. The priest shall assign a value according to his ability to pay.
9
“‘If it is an animal of which men offer an offering to the LORD, all that any man gives of such to the LORD becomes holy.
10
He shall not alter it, nor exchange it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good. If he shall at all exchange animal for animal, then both it and that for which it is exchanged shall be holy.
11
If it is any unclean animal, of which they do not offer as an offering to the LORD, then he shall set the animal before the priest;
12
and the priest shall evaluate it, whether it is good or bad. As the priest evaluates it, so it shall be.
13
But if he will indeed redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part of it to its valuation.
14
“‘When a man dedicates his house to be holy to the LORD, then the priest shall evaluate it, whether it is good or bad. As the priest evaluates it, so it shall stand.
15
If he who dedicates it will redeem his house, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of your valuation to it, and it shall be his.
16
“‘If a man dedicates to the LORD part of the field of his possession, then your valuation shall be according to the seed for it. The sowing of a homer (b) of barley shall be valued at fifty shekels (c) of silver.
17
If he dedicates his field from the Year of Jubilee, according to your valuation it shall stand.
18
But if he dedicates his field after the Jubilee, then the priest shall reckon to him the money according to the years that remain to the Year of Jubilee; and an abatement shall be made from your valuation.
19
If he who dedicated the field will indeed redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of your valuation to it, and it shall remain his.
20
If he will not redeem the field, or if he has sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed any more;
21
but the field, when it goes out in the Jubilee, shall be holy to the LORD, as a devoted field. It shall be owned by the priests.
22
“‘If he dedicates a field to the LORD which he has bought, which is not of the field of his possession,
23
then the priest shall reckon to him the worth of your valuation up to the Year of Jubilee; and he shall give your valuation on that day, as a holy thing to the LORD.
24
In the Year of Jubilee the field shall return to him from whom it was bought, even to him to whom the possession of the land belongs.
25
All your valuations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs (d) to the shekel.(e)
26
“‘However the firstborn among animals, which belongs to the LORD as a firstborn, no man may dedicate, whether an ox or a sheep. It is the LORD’s.
27
If it is an unclean animal, then he shall buy it back according to your valuation, and shall add to it the fifth part of it; or if it isn’t redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your valuation.
28
“‘Notwithstanding, no devoted thing that a man devotes to the LORD of all that he has, whether of man or animal, or of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed. Everything that is permanently devoted is most holy to the LORD.
29
“‘No one devoted to destruction, who shall be devoted from among men, shall be ransomed. He shall surely be put to death.

Instruction on Tithes

(Deuteronomy 14:22–29; Deuteronomy 26:1–15; Nehemiah 13:10–14)
30
“‘All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the LORD’s. It is holy to the LORD.
31
If a man redeems anything of his tithe, he shall add a fifth part to it.
32
All the tithe of the herds or the flocks, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth shall be holy to the LORD.
33
He shall not examine whether it is good or bad, neither shall he exchange it. If he exchanges it at all, then both it and that for which it is exchanged shall be holy. It shall not be redeemed.’”
34
These are the commandments which the LORD commanded Moses for the children of Israel on Mount Sinai.

Footnotes

(a)27:3 A shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces.
(b)27:16 1 homer is about 220 liters or 6 bushels
(c)27:16 A shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces.
(d)27:25 A gerah is about 0.5 grams or about 7.7 grains.
(e)27:25 A shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces.