^27:1The Lord spoke to Moses: ^27:2“Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When a man makes a special votive offering¹ based on the conversion value of persons to the Lord,²^27:3the conversion value of the male³ from twenty years old up to sixty years old⁴ is fifty shekels by the standard of the sanctuary shekel.⁵^27:4If the person is a female, the conversion value is thirty shekels. ^27:5If 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. ^27:6If the person is one month old up to five years old, the conversion value of the male is five shekels of silver,⁶ and for the female the conversion value is three shekels of silver. ^27:7If 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. ^27:8If 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;⁷ according to what the man who made the vow can afford,⁸ 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 presented⁹ to the Lord, anything which he gives to the Lord from this kind of animal¹⁰ will be holy. ^27:10He 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 animal¹¹ and its substitute will be holy. ^27:11If 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, ^27:12and the priest will establish its conversion value,¹² whether good or bad. According to the assessed conversion value of the priest, thus it will be. ^27:13If, however, the person who made the vow redeems the animal,¹³ he must add one fifth to¹⁴ its conversion value.

Read in Logos

Footnotes

1 Cf. the note on . Some take this as an expression for fulfilling a vow, “to fulfill a vow” (e.g., פלא piel and ; cf. “in fulfillment of a vow”) or, alternatively, “to make a vow” or “for making a vow” ( פלא piel [II פלא]). Perhaps it refers to the making a special vow, from the verb פָלָא (pala’, “to be wonderful; to be remarkable”), cf. Milgrom, Numbers [], . B. A. Levine, Leviticus (), and , suggests that this is a special term for “setting aside a votive offering” (related to פָלָה, palah, “to set aside”). In general, the point of the expression seems to be that this sacrifice is a special gift to God that arose out of special circumstances in the life of the worshiper.
2 Heb “in your valuation, persons to the Lord,” but “in your valuation” is a frozen form and, therefore, the person (“your”) does not figure into the translation (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [], ). Instead of offering a person to the Lord one could redeem that person with the appropriate amount of money delineated in the following verses (see the note on above and the explanation in Hartley, ).
3 Heb “your conversion value shall be [for] the male.”
4 Heb “from a son of twenty years and until a son of sixty years.”
5 See the note on .
6 Heb “five shekels silver.”
7 Heb “and the priest shall cause him to be valued.”
8 Heb “on the mouth which the hand of the one who vowed reaches.”
9 Heb “which they may present from it an offering.” The plural active verb is sometimes best rendered in the passive ( §144.f, g). Some medieval Hebrew , , a of the , and the all have the singular verb instead (cf. similarly v. 11).
10 Heb “from it.” The masculine suffix “it” here is used for the feminine in the , but one medieval Hebrew , some of , the , and the have the feminine. The referent (this kind of animal) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
11 Heb “it and its substitute.” The referent (the original animal offered) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
12 Heb “and the priest shall cause it to be valued.” See the note on v. above.
13 Heb “And if redeeming [infinitive absolute] he redeems it [finite verb].” For the infinitive absolute used to highlight contrast rather than emphasis see §113.p. The referent of “he” (the person who made the vow) and “it” (the animal) have both been specified in the translation for clarity.
14 Heb “on,” meaning “on top of, in addition to” (likewise in v. 15).