Leviticus 27:16

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, ¹  a homer of barley seed being priced at fifty shekels of silver. ² 

Ezekiel 45:10-11

45:10 You must use just balances, ³  a just dry measure (an ephah), ⁴  and a just liquid measure (a bath). ⁵  45:11 The dry and liquid measures will be the same, the bath will contain a tenth of a homer, ⁶  and the ephah a tenth of a homer; the homer will be the standard measure.

Joel 1:17

1:17 The grains of seed ⁷  have shriveled beneath their shovels. ⁸ 

Storehouses have been decimated

and granaries have been torn down, for the grain has dried up.

Haggai 1:9-11

1:9 ‘You expected a large harvest, but instead ⁹  there was little, and when you brought it home it disappeared right away. ¹⁰  Why?’ asks the Lord who rules over all. ‘Because my temple remains in ruins, thanks to each of you favoring his own house! ¹¹  1:10 This is why the sky ¹²  has held back its dew and the earth its produce. ¹³  1:11 Moreover, I have called for a drought that will affect the fields, the hill country, the grain, new wine, fresh olive oil, and everything that grows from the ground; it also will harm people, animals, and everything they produce.’” ¹⁴ 

¹ tn Heb “a conversion value shall be to the mouth of its seed.”

² tn Heb “seed of a homer of barley in fifty shekels of silver.”

³ sn Previous legislation regarding this practice may be found in Lev 19:35-36; Deut 25:13-16; Mic 6:10-12.

⁴ tn Heb “ephah,” which was 1/2 bushel.

⁵ tn Heb “bath,” a liquid measure, was 5 1/2 gallons.

⁶ sn The homer was about 5 bushels as a dry measure and 55 gallons as a liquid measure.

⁷ tn Heb “seed.” The phrase “the grains of” does not appear in the Hebrew, but has been supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

⁸ tc This line is textually uncertain. The MT reads “the seed shrivels in their shovels/clods.” One Qumran manuscript (4QXXII^c) reads “the heifers decay in [their] s[talls].” LXX reads “the heifers leap in their stalls.”

⁹ tn Heb “look!” (הִנֵּה, hinneh). The term, an interjection, draws attention to the point being made.

¹⁰ tn Heb “I blew it away” (so NRSV, TEV, NLT). The imagery here suggests that human achievements are so fragile and temporal that a mere breath from God can destroy them (see Ezek 22:20, 21; and Isa 40:7 with נָשַׁב, nashav).

¹¹ tn Heb “and each of you runs to his own house”; NIV “is busy with”; TEV “is busy working on”; NCV “work hard for.”

¹² tn The Hebrew text has “over you” (so KJV), but this is redundant in contemporary English and has been left untranslated.

¹³ sn This linkage of human sin to natural disaster is reminiscent of the curse brought upon the earth by Adam’s disobedience (Gen 3:17-19; see Rom 8:20-22).

¹⁴ tn Heb “all the labor of hands” (similar KJV, NASB, NIV); cf. NAB “all that is produced by hand.”