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Texts -- Leviticus 27:1-28 (NET)

Context
Redemption of Vowed People
27:1 The Lord spoke to Moses : 27:2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When a man makes a special votive offering based on the conversion value of persons to the Lord , 27:3 the conversion value of the male from twenty years old up to sixty years old is fifty shekels by the standard of the sanctuary shekel . 27:4 If the person is a female , the conversion value is thirty shekels . 27:5 If the person is from five years old up to twenty years old , the conversion value of the male is twenty shekels , and for the female ten shekels . 27:6 If the person is one month old up to five years old , the conversion value of the male is five shekels of silver , and for the female the conversion value is three shekels of silver . 27:7 If the person is from sixty years old and older , if he is a male the conversion value is fifteen shekels , and for the female ten shekels . 27:8 If he is too poor to pay the conversion value , he must stand the person before the priest and the priest will establish his conversion value ; according to what the man who made the vow can afford , the priest will establish his conversion value .
Redemption of Vowed Animals
27:9 “‘If what is vowed is a kind of animal from which an offering may be presented to the Lord , anything which he gives to the Lord from this kind of animal will be holy . 27:10 He must not replace or exchange it, good for bad or bad for good , and if he does indeed exchange one animal for another animal , then both the original animal and its substitute will be holy . 27:11 If what is vowed is an unclean animal from which an offering must not be presented to the Lord , then he must stand the animal before the priest , 27:12 and the priest will establish its conversion value , whether good or bad . According to the assessed conversion value of the priest , thus it will be . 27:13 If , however, the person who made the vow redeems the animal, he must add one fifth to its conversion value .
Redemption of Vowed Houses
27:14 “‘If a man consecrates his house as holy to the Lord , the priest will establish its conversion value, whether good or bad . Just as the priest establishes its conversion value, thus it will stand . 27:15 If the one who consecrates it redeems his house , he must add to it one fifth of its conversion value in silver , and it will belong to him.
Redemption of Vowed Fields
27:16 “‘If a man consecrates to the Lord some of his own landed property , the conversion value must be calculated in accordance with the amount of seed needed to sow it, a homer of barley seed being priced at fifty shekels of silver . 27:17 If he consecrates his field in the jubilee year , the conversion value will stand , 27:18 but if he consecrates his field after the jubilee , the priest will calculate the price for him according to the years that are left until the next jubilee year , and it will be deducted from the conversion value . 27:19 If , however, the one who consecrated the field redeems it, he must add to it one fifth of the conversion price price and it will belong to him. 27:20 If he does not redeem the field , but sells the field to someone else , he may never redeem it. 27:21 When it reverts in the jubilee , the field will be holy to the Lord like a permanently dedicated field ; it will become the priest’s property . 27:22 “‘If he consecrates to the Lord a field he has purchased , which is not part of his own landed property , 27:23 the priest will calculate for him the amount of its conversion value until the jubilee year , and he must pay the conversion value on that jubilee day as something that is holy to the Lord . 27:24 In the jubilee year the field will return to the one from whom he bought it, the one to whom it belongs as landed property . 27:25 Every conversion value must be calculated by the standard of the sanctuary shekel ; twenty gerahs to the shekel .
Redemption of the Firstborn
27:26 “‘Surely no man may consecrate a firstborn that already belongs to the Lord as a firstborn among the animals ; whether it is an ox or a sheep , it belongs to the Lord . 27:27 If , however, it is among the unclean animals , he may ransom it according to its conversion value and must add one fifth to it, but if it is not redeemed it must be sold according to its conversion value .
Things Permanently Dedicated to the Lord
27:28 “‘Surely anything which a man permanently dedicates to the Lord from all that belongs to him, whether from people , animals , or his landed property , must be neither sold nor redeemed ; anything permanently dedicated is most holy to the Lord .

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Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

  • Joseph's brothers met his second recorded visit to them with great antagonism. They plotted to kill him and so render his dreams impossible to fulfill. For practical reasons they decided to sell him and to deceive Jacob into ...
  • "At first sight the book of Leviticus might appear to be a haphazard, even repetitious arrangement of enactments involving the future life in Canaan of the Israelite people. Closer examination will reveal, however, that quite...
  • Leviticus continues revelation concerning the second of three elements necessary for any nation to exist, namely, a people (Gen. 12:10--Exod. 19), their law (Exod. 20--Num. 10:10), and their land (Num. 10:11--Josh. 24).Leviti...
  • The structure of 4:1-6:7 indicates that this offering has a close relationship to the sin offering. This offering removed the guilt of certain sins that involved trespassing against God. Trespassing means going beyond the lim...
  • The laws of purification begun in this chapter connect in principle with the preceding ones that deal with unclean food and animals. The defilement dealt with in this group (chs. 12-15) proceeded from the human body. Pollutio...
  • The sacrifices and offerings that Moses described thus far in the law were not sufficient to cleanse all the defilement that the sins of the people created. Much sinfulness still needed covering. Therefore God appointed a yea...
  • The people were to buy and sell property in view of the upcoming year of jubilee since in that year all property would revert to its original tribal leasees. This special year reminded the Israelites that they did not really ...
  • In this section God explained that His discipline for disobedience would be to produce repentance and return to Himself by the Israelites.26:34-39 The length of the Babylonian captivity was 70 years because the Israelites fai...
  • The blessings and curses (ch. 26) were in a sense God's vows to His people. This chapter deals with His people's vows to Him. Another connection between these chapters is that in times of divine discipline (26:14-33) people t...
  • The amount of money that a person had to pay at the end of a vow in which he pledged a person depended on the age and sex of the individual. Some people were worth more in this respect than others."These figures are very larg...
  • God treated houses (vv. 14-15) the same as unclean cattle (cf. vv. 11-12). He calculated land value in relationship to the year of jubilee. The people evidently were to pay for land they inherited and then vowed year by year ...
  • God claimed as His possession one tenth of the seed, fruit, and livestock of the Israelites. If the owner wished to keep some of this himself, he had to pay the value of what he kept to God plus 20 percent. This tithe was a c...
  • Genesis reveals how people can have a relationship with God. This comes through trust in God and obedience to Him. Faith is the key word in Genesis. God proves Himself faithful in this book.Exodus reveals that God is also sov...
  • The emphasis in this section continues to be on the importance of maintaining purity in the camp so God's blessing on Israel might continue unabated.The Nazarite (from the Hebrew root nazar, meaning "to separate") illustrated...
  • The last chapter of Leviticus (ch. 27) contains instructions regarding how the Israelites were to handle vows under the Mosaic Law. In contrast this chapter deals with when and under what circumstances they could annul vows a...
  • Verses 1-33 record Jephthah's success. The rest of his story (11:34-12:7) relates his failure. The writer likewise recorded Gideon's success first (6:1-8:23) and then his failure (8:24-9:57). We shall find a similar pattern w...
  • "Scenes 3 [vv. 19-20] and 4 [vv. 21-28a] are a pair, not unlike the pairing of 1 [vv. 3-8] and 2 [vv. 9-19]. They are the two scenes of resolution. . . . These two scenes are concerned not with the birth, but with Hannah comi...
  • This was the first such project the writer recorded in Kings. Later Hezekiah and Josiah also repaired the temple. Until now temple expenses came out of the royal treasury, but Josiah moved this obligation into the private sec...
  • 44:15-16 The Levites from Zadok's branch of the priestly family, however, would have special privileges since Zadok and his sons had served the Lord faithfully in the past (cf. 40:46; 1 Sam. 2:35; 2 Sam. 8:17; 15:24-29; 1 Kin...
  • 46:16-17 The prince could give a gift to any of his sons out of his own inheritance from the Lord. This gift was theirs forever. However, if he gave such a gift to one of his servants, it would revert back to him on the year ...
  • Paul had attempted to reach the province of Asia earlier (16:6). Now the Lord permitted him to go there but from the west rather than from the east. Luke recorded his initial contact in Ephesus in this section to set the scen...
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