2024-05-14

Leviticus 27:1-27:34


The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: When anyone explicitly vows to the Lord the equivalent for a human being, the following scale shall apply: If it is a male from twenty to sixty years of age, the equivalent is fifty shekels of silver by the sanctuary weight; if it is a female, the equivalent is thirty shekels. If the age is from five years to twenty years, the equivalent is twenty shekels for a male and ten shekels for a female. If the age is from one month to five years, the equivalent for a male is five shekels of silver, and the equivalent for a female is three shekels of silver. If the age is sixty years or over, the equivalent is fifteen shekels in the case of a male and ten shekels for a female. But if one cannot afford the equivalent, he shall be presented before the priest, and the priest shall assess him; the priest shall assess him according to what the vower can afford. If [the vow concerns] any animal that may be brought as an offering to the Lord, any such that may be given to the Lord shall be holy. One may not exchange or substitute another for it, either good for bad, or bad for good; if one does substitute one animal for another, the thing vowed and its substitute shall both be holy. If [the vow concerns] any unclean animal that may not be brought as an offering to the Lord, the animal shall be presented before the priest, and the priest shall assess it. Whether high or low, whatever assessment is set by the priest shall stand; and if he wishes to redeem it, he must add one-fifth to its assessment. If anyone consecrates his house to the Lord, the priest shall assess it. Whether high or low, as the priest assesses it, so it shall stand; and if he who has consecrated his house wishes to redeem it, he must add one-fifth to the sum at which it was assessed, and it shall be his. If anyone consecrates to the Lord any land that he holds, its assessment shall be in accordance with its seed requirement: fifty shekels of silver to a homer of barley seed. If he consecrates his land as of the jubilee year, its assessment stands. But if he consecrates his land after the jubilee, the priest shall compute the price according to the years that are left until the jubilee year, and its assessment shall be so reduced; and if he who consecrated the land wishes to redeem it, he must add one-fifth to the sum at which it was assessed, and it shall pass to him. But if he does not redeem the land, and the land is sold to another, it shall no longer be redeemable: when it is released in the jubilee, the land shall be holy to the Lord, as land proscribed; it becomes the priest's holding. If he consecrates to the Lord land that he purchased, which is not land of his holding, the priest shall compute for him the proportionate assessment up to the jubilee year, and he shall pay the assessment as of that day, a sacred donation to the Lord. In the jubilee year the land shall revert to him from whom it was bought, whose holding the land is. All assessments shall be by the sanctuary weight, the shekel being twenty gerahs. A firstling of animals, however, which--as a firstling--is the Lord's, cannot be consecrated by anybody; whether ox or sheep, it is the Lord's. But if it is of unclean animals, it may be ransomed as its assessment, with one-fifth added; if it is not redeemed, it shall be sold at its assessment. But of all that anyone owns, be it man or beast or land of his holding, nothing that he has proscribed for the Lord may be sold or redeemed; every proscribed thing is totally consecrated to the Lord. No human being who has been proscribed can be ransomed: he shall be put to death. All tithes from the land, whether seed from the ground or fruit from the tree, are the Lord's; they are holy to the Lord. If anyone wishes to redeem any of his tithes, he must add one-fifth to them. All tithes of the herd or flock--of all that passes under the shepherd's staff, every tenth one--shall be holy to the Lord. He must not look out for good as against bad, or make substitution for it. If he does make substitution for it, then it and its substitute shall both be holy: it cannot be redeemed. These are the commandments that the Lord gave Moses for the Israelite people on Mount Sinai.
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