Leviticus 27
After the intensity of Leviticus 26 - with its blessings and curses written in fire - Leviticus closes with a practical, almost mundane chapter: what happens when you make a vow? How much does it cost to keep one? Can you buy your way out of a promise you made to God? It feels like a legal appendix after all that drama, but it's beautiful. God provides a way to fulfill rash or impossible vows through redemption. There is always a substitute price.
The chapter returns three times to one principle: if you dedicate something to the Lord and then change your mind, you can redeem it - buy it back - by paying a set price. A person, an animal, a house, a field. Each has its value. And then the chapter closes with the tithe: every tenth animal, every tenth grain belongs to God by right. Not an offer. Not a suggestion. One out of ten, always, for the Lord.
For the reader who has followed Israel through Leviticus - through the sacrifices, the clean and unclean, the Day of Atonement, the festivals - this closing word is both sobering and gracious. Your vows matter. They cost something. But God has already named the price. And the tithe principle, carried forward into the New Testament, reminds us that the first and the best belong not to us, but to Him.
Tap any highlighted phrase to jump to the commentary that unpacks it.
Leviticus 27:1-8Vows of Persons
1And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 2Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When a man shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be for the Lord by thy estimation.
A vow is a solemn promise made to God - usually in a moment of crisis or devotion1. If you made a vow to dedicate yourself or your family member to the Lord's service, you could later redeem (buy back) that person at a set price. The vow was taken seriously, but God provided an escape route for those who made promises beyond their ability to keep.
3And thy estimation shall be of the male from twenty years old even unto sixty years old, even thy estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary. 4And if it be a female, then thy estimation shall be thirty shekels. 5And if it be from five years old even unto twenty years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male twenty shekels, and for the female ten shekels. 6And if it be from a month old even unto five years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male five shekels of silver, and for the female thy estimation shall be three shekels of silver. 7And if it be from sixty years old and above; if it be a male, then thy estimation shall be fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels. 8But if he be poorer than thy estimation, then he shall present himself before the priest, and the priest shall value him; according to his ability that vowed shall the priest value him.
The prices vary by age and gender. A man in his prime - twenty to sixty - is worth fifty shekels. A woman, thirty. A child, less. An elderly person, less still. The pattern is practical: value is measured by productive years. But notice verse 8: if a person cannot afford the price, the priest lowers it. The door is never slammed. God does not demand a redemption price beyond what a person can pay.
Leviticus 27:9-13Vows of Animals
9And if it be a beast, whereof men bring an offering unto the Lord, all that any man giveth of such unto the Lord shall be holy. 10He shall not alter it, nor change it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good: and if he shall at all change beast for beast, then it and the exchange thereof shall be holy. 11But if any unclean beast, of which they do not offer a sacrifice unto the Lord, then he shall cause the beast to stand before the priest: 12And the priest shall value it, whether it be good or bad: as thou valuest it, who art the priest, so shall it be. 13But if he will at all redeem it, then he shall add a fifth part thereof above thy estimation.
Once an animal is dedicated to the Lord, it becomes holy - set apart. You cannot swap a good animal for a bad one and keep them both; the whole gift belongs to God. The principle is absolute: what you give to God cannot be divided or taken back lightly.
To redeem means to buy back2. If you vowed an animal but later cannot let it go, you can recover it by paying the priest's valuation plus one-fifth. It costs more to get out of the vow than the animal itself is worth. This is the weight of a broken promise - redemption is possible, but it is expensive.
Leviticus 27:14-15Vows of Houses
14And when a man shall sanctify his house to be holy unto the Lord, then the priest shall estimate it, whether it be good or bad: as the priest shall estimate it, so shall it stand. 15And if he that sanctified it will redeem his house, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be his.
A house - a home, a shelter - could be dedicated to the Lord. Perhaps in a moment of thanksgiving or desperation, someone vowed their house. The law allows redemption, but again, it costs more to take it back than it was initially worth. A house is not a small thing to release and reclaim.
Leviticus 27:16-25Vows of Fields
16And if a man shall sanctify unto the Lord some part of a field of his possession, then thy estimation shall be according to the seed thereof: an homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. 17If he sanctify his field from the year of jubile, according to thy estimation it shall stand. 18But if he sanctify his field after the jubile, then the priest shall reckon unto him the money according to the years that remain, even unto the year of the jubile of jubilees, and an abatement shall be made from thy estimation. 19And if he that sanctified the field will in any wise redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be assured to him. 20And if he will not redeem the field, or if he have sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed any more.
The dedicated items are valued. Now God moves to the animals - where the law becomes both simpler and weightier.
21But the field, when it goeth out in the jubile, shall be holy unto the Lord, as a field devoted; the possession thereof shall be the priest's. 22And if a man sanctify unto the Lord a field which he hath bought, which is not of the fields of his possession; 23Then the priest shall reckon unto him the worth of thy estimation, even unto the year of the jubile: and he shall give thine estimation in that day, as a holy thing unto the Lord. 24In the year of the jubile the field shall return unto him of whom it was bought, even to him to whom the possession of the land did belong. 25And all thy estimations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall be a shekel.
A field is tied to livelihood and inheritance. Vowing a field was a serious matter - it meant releasing your livelihood to the Lord. The law accounts for the Jubilee year, when all land reverts anyway. If a man vows a field at the start of a Jubilee cycle, the price is high. If he vows it near the end, the price is lower - because the land will return to him in just a few years anyway. The law is precise and fair.
If a field is vowed and never redeemed, it becomes the priest's possession permanently - even if it was sold to someone else later. The Jubilee principle is woven throughout: no land sale is truly permanent in Israel. Every fifty years, the land resets. God owns the land; Israel only holds it in trust.
Leviticus 27:26-34The Tithe - The Lord's Portion
26Only the firstlings of the beasts, which should be the Lord's firstling, no man shall sanctify; whether it be ox, or sheep: it is the Lord's. 27And if it be of an unclean beast, then he shall redeem it according to thine estimation, and shall add a fifth part of it thereto: or if it be not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to thy estimation. 28Notwithstanding, no devoted thing, that a man shall devote unto the Lord of all that he hath, both man and beast, and of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed: every devoted thing is most holy unto the Lord. 29None devoted, which shall be devoted of men, shall be redeemed; but shall surely be put to death.
The devoted things are set apart. What comes next is the final provision: God's word on the tithe itself.
30And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's: it is holy unto the Lord. 31And if a man will at all redeem ought of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof. 32And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord. 33He shall not search whether it be good or bad, neither shall he change it: and if he change it at all, then both it and the change thereof shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed. 34These are the commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai.
And now, in the final stroke of the chapter, comes the tithe. One out of every ten - one out of every ten animals born in the flock, one out of every ten sheaves of grain, one out of every ten fruits on the tree. This is not a donation. This is not an option. This is a law. Every tenth belongs to the Lord. Not your seventh or your fifth - your tenth. One for you, nine for God, then start counting again.
Leviticus 27:34The Closing Word
Leviticus ends not with a bang, but with a housekeeping note: "These are the commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai." After chapters of ritual detail, animal blood, atonement, and festival calendars, the book closes on a simple fact: these are the rules. Not grievous, not impossible, but clear. A framework for a people to live clean before their God, always knowing that if they stumble, redemption is available - at a cost, but always available. The book of Leviticus is about access. How do ordinary people draw near to a holy God? The answer: by following the path He has marked out. And when you fall off the path, there is always a way back.
Further study
- Comprehensive Jewish commentary and interpretive tradition on vows, redemption, and the tithe in Leviticus 27.
- Vows and Redemption in Ancient IsraelBible OdysseyContextual study of how vows functioned in ancient Israelite society and the redemption principle.
- 2 Corinthians 8:5 - Self-Giving as True OfferingIntertextual BiblePaul's teaching on giving oneself to the Lord as the fulfillment of the tithe and vow principle.