Leviticus 27

¹ Yahweh spoke to Moses; he said:

² Speak to the sons of Israel and tell them: “If anyone vows the value of a person to Yahweh and wishes to discharge the vow:

³ A man between twenty and sixty years of age shall be valued at fifty silver shekels – the sanctuary shekel;

⁴ A woman shall be valued at thirty shekels;

⁵ between five and twenty years, a boy shall be valued at twenty shekels, a girl at ten shekels;

⁶ between one month and five years, a boy shall be valued at five silver shekels, a girl at three silver shekels;

⁷ at sixty years and over, a man shall be valued at fifteen shekels and a woman at ten shekels.

⁸ If the person who made the vow cannot meet this valuation, he must present the person concerned to the priest, and the priest shall set a value proportionate to the resources of the person who made the vow.

⁹ If it is a question of an animal suitable for offering to Yahweh, any such animal given to Yahweh shall be a consecrated thing.

¹⁰ It cannot be exchanged or a substitute offered – good for bad, bad for good. If one animal is substituted for another, both of them shall be consecrated.

¹¹ If it is a question of an unclean animal, and not suitable for offering to Yahweh, whatever it may be it must be presented to the priest

¹² and he shall set a value on it, judging it good or bad. You must abide by his valuation;

¹³ but if the person wishes to redeem it, he must add one-fifth to the valuation.

¹⁴ If a man consecrates his house to Yahweh, the priest shall set a value on it, judging whether its value is great or little. You must abide by the priest’s valuation,

¹⁵ but if the man who has vowed his house wishes to redeem it, he must add one-fifth to the valuation, and it shall revert to him.

¹⁶ If a man consecrates one of the fields of his patrimony to Yahweh, its value shall be calculated according to its productivity, at the rate of fifty silver shekels to one omer of barley.

¹⁷ If he consecrates the field during the jubilee year, he must stand by this valuation.

¹⁸ But if he consecrates it after the jubilee, the priest shall calculate the price on the basis of the number of years still to run until the next jubilee and the valuation shall be reduced accordingly.

¹⁹ If he wishes to redeem the field, he shall add one-fifth to the valuation, and the field shall revert to him.

²⁰ If he does not redeem it but sells it to another, the right of redemption ceases;

²¹ when the buyer has to relinquish it at the jubilee year, it becomes a thing consecrated to Yahweh, the same as a field laid under ban: the man’s property passes to the priest.

²² If he consecrates to Yahweh a field which he has bought, but which is not part of his patrimony,

²³ the priest shall assess the valuation on the basis of the number of years still to run before the jubilee year; and the man shall pay this sum the same day, as for a thing consecrated to Yahweh.

²⁴ In the jubilee year, the field shall return to the seller, to the man to whose patrimony the land belongs.

²⁵ All valuation must be made in sanctuary shekels, at the rate of twenty gerahs to the shekel.

²⁶ No one, however, may consecrate the first-born of his cattle, for it belongs to Yahweh by right: whether ox or sheep, it belongs to Yahweh.

²⁷ But if it is an unclean animal it may be repurchased at the valuation price with one-fifth added; if it is not redeemed, the animal shall be sold at the valuation price.

²⁸ Nothing, however, that a man lays under ban for Yahweh may be redeemed; nothing he possesses, whether man, beasts, or fields of his patrimony. What is laid under ban is always a most holy thing and belongs to Yahweh.

²⁹ A human being laid under ban cannot be redeemed, he must be put to death.

³⁰ All tithes of the land, levied on the produce of the earth or the fruits of trees, belong to Yahweh; they are consecrated to Yahweh.

³¹ If a man wishes to redeem part of his tithe, he must add one-fifth to its value.

³² In all tithes of flock or herd, the tenth animal of all that pass under the herdsman’s staff shall be a thing consecrated to Yahweh;

³³ there must be no picking out of good and bad, no substitution. If substitution takes place, both the animal and its substitute shall be things consecrated without possibility of redemption.”‘

³⁴ These are the commandments that Yahweh laid down for Moses on Mount Sinai, for the sons of Israel.