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Leviticus

About this book
Chapter 27

1 The Lord spoke to Moses: 2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When a man makes a special votive offering based on the conversion value of a person to the Lord,⁠ 3 the conversion value of the male from twenty years old up to sixty years old is 50 shekels by the standard of the sanctuary shekel. 4 If the person is a female, the conversion value is 30 shekels. 5 If the person is from five years old up to twenty years old, the conversion value of the male is 20 shekels, and for the female 10 shekels. 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. 7 If the person is from sixty years old and older, if he is a male, the conversion value is 15 shekels, and for the female 10 shekels. 8 If the person making the votive offering 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 votive offering can afford, the priest will establish his conversion value. 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. 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. 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, 12 and the priest will establish its conversion value, whether good or bad. According to the conversion value assessed by the priest, thus it will be. 13 If, however, the person who made the vow redeems the animal, he must add one-fifth to its conversion value. 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. 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. 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 50 shekels of silver. 17 If he consecrates his field in the Jubilee year, the conversion value will stand, 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. 19 If, however, the one who consecrated the field redeems it, he must add to it one-fifth of the conversion price, and it will belong to him. 20 If he does not redeem the field, but sells the field to someone else, he may never redeem it. 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. 22 “‘If he consecrates to the Lord a field he has purchased, which is not part of his own landed property, 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. 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. 25 Every conversion value must be calculated by the standard of the sanctuary shekel; 20 gerahs to the shekel. 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 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. 28 “‘Surely anything that 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.⁠ 29 Any human being who is permanently dedicated to the Lord must not be ransomed; such a person must be put to death. 30 “‘Any tithe of the land, from the grain of the land or from the fruit of the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord. 31 If a man redeems part of his tithe, however, he must add one-fifth to it. 32 All the tithe of herds or flocks, everything which passes under the rod, the tenth one will be holy to the Lord. 33 The owner must not examine the animals to distinguish between good and bad, and he must not exchange it. If, however, he does exchange it, both the original animal and its substitute will be holy and must not be redeemed.’” 34 These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses to tell the Israelites at Mount Sinai.

Texts in conversation

Compare Leviticus 27:2 and Onkelos Leviticus 27:2

Hebrew Bible · Targum

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Summary

Leviticus 27 describes how a person could dedicate someone to God through a monetary system, assigning worth based on age and gender. The Aramaic translation in Targum Onkelos shows signs it struggled to translate the Hebrew source.

Passages

Leviticus 27:2

Hebrew Bible
1 The Lord spoke to Moses: 2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When a man makes a special votive offering based on the conversion value of a person to the Lord, 3 the conversion value of the male from twenty years old up to sixty years old is 50 shekels by the standard of the sanctuary shekel.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Leviticus

Onkelos Leviticus 27:2

Targum
1 And the Lord spoke with Moses, saying: 2 Speak with the sons of Israel, and say to them: When a man sets apart a votive offering, it shall be by valuation of the life before the Lord. 3 If it is the valuation for a male from twenty years to sixty years old, the valuation shall be fifty shekels of silver, in the shekel of the sanctuary.
50–500 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Onkelos Leviticus

References

"... We have pointed out frequently that ancient biblical Hebrew varied in many ways from modern Hebrew. Chapter 27 offers interesting examples. In verse 2, the Bible's arkhekha has a final khaf that has perplexed linguists because the word ending has no modern counterpart. As a result, the experts differ in how they explain it. Another example is verse 9, where the Torah describes an object in two different phrases in the same passage, but uses the masculine form once and the feminine in the other, simply because biblical Hebrew was unconcerned about what modern Hebrew considers strict rules of gender. These phenomena caused the ancient Aramaic translators problems as well, and the Targums differ in how they translate these words. These difficulties and many others are generally obscured in English Bible translations ..."
Israel Drazin and Stanley M. Wagner, Onkelos on the Torah, Leviticus: Understanding the Bible Text (Jerusalem: Gefen, 2008).

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Leviticus 27:2 and Onkelos Leviticus 27:2

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