Leviticus 27

Valuations for Vowed Persons

1The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When someone makes a special vow to the LORD involving the valuation of a person, 3the valuation for a male from twenty years old up to sixty years old will be fifty shekels of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel. 4If the person is female, the valuation will be thirty shekels. 5If the person is from five years old up to twenty years old, the valuation for a male will be twenty shekels and for a female ten shekels. 6If the person is from one month old up to five years old, the valuation for a male will be five shekels of silver and for a female three shekels of silver. 7If the person is sixty years old or older, the valuation for a male will be fifteen shekels and for a female ten shekels. 8But if someone is too poor to pay the valuation, that person will be presented before the priest, and the priest will assign a valuation according to what the one who made the vow can afford.

Animals Dedicated to the LORD

9If the vow concerns an animal that may be presented as an offering to the LORD, anything given from such animals to the LORD will be holy. 10It will not be altered or exchanged, good for bad or bad for good. If one animal is exchanged for another, both the original animal and its substitute will be holy. 11If it is any unclean animal that may not be presented as an offering to the LORD, the animal will be set before the priest. 12The priest will assign its value, whether good or bad. Whatever valuation the priest assigns, so it will be. 13If the owner wishes to redeem it, one-fifth will be added to its valuation.

Houses Dedicated to the LORD

14If someone dedicates a house as holy to the LORD, the priest will assign its value, whether good or bad. Whatever valuation the priest assigns, so it will stand. 15If the one who dedicated the house wishes to redeem it, that person will add one-fifth to the valuation price, and the house will again belong to that person.

Fields Dedicated to the LORD

16If someone dedicates to the LORD part of a field from ancestral possession, the valuation will be according to the amount of seed required for it: a homer of barley seed will be valued at fifty shekels of silver. 17If the field is dedicated beginning in the Year of Jubilee, the full valuation will stand. 18But if the field is dedicated after the Jubilee, the priest will calculate the price according to the years remaining until the Year of Jubilee, and the valuation will be reduced accordingly. 19If the one who dedicated the field wishes to redeem it, that person will add one-fifth to the valuation price, and it will remain theirs. 20But if that person does not redeem the field, or if the field has been sold to another person, it may no longer be redeemed. 21When the field is released in the Jubilee, it will be holy to the LORD like a field devoted to the LORD; it will become the priest’s possession.

22If someone dedicates to the LORD a field that was purchased and is not part of ancestral possession, 23the priest will calculate for that person the amount of the valuation up to the Year of Jubilee, and the person will give the valuation on that day as something holy to the LORD. 24In the Year of Jubilee the field will return to the person from whom it was bought, the one whose ancestral possession of the land it was. 25Every valuation will be according to the sanctuary shekel: twenty gerahs will make one shekel.

Firstborn and Devoted Things

26But no one may dedicate the firstborn of an animal, because as firstborn it already belongs to the LORD. Whether ox or sheep, it belongs to the LORD. 27If it is an unclean animal, the owner may redeem it according to the valuation and will add one-fifth to it. If it is not redeemed, it will be sold according to the valuation.

28But nothing that someone devotes irrevocably to the LORD from anything they possess—whether a human being, an animal, or an ancestral field—may be sold or redeemed. Everything devoted irrevocably is most holy to the LORD. 29No human being devoted to destruction may be ransomed; that person will surely be put to death.

Tithes

30Every tithe of the land, whether from the seed of the land or from the fruit of the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD. 31If someone wishes to redeem any of the tithe, one-fifth will be added to it. 32Every tithe of herd or flock—every tenth animal that passes under the staff—will be holy to the LORD. 33The owner will not examine whether it is good or bad and will not exchange it. If it is exchanged, both it and its substitute will be holy; it may not be redeemed.”

34These are the commandments that the LORD commanded Moses for the Israelites on Mount Sinai.