Leviticus 27:1-13 - Vows

"1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Speak 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. 3 And 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. 4 And if it be a female, then thy estimation shall be thirty shekels. 5 And 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. 6 And 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. 7 And 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. 8 But 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. 9 And 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. 10 He 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. 11 And if it be any unclean beast, of which they do not offer a sacrifice unto the LORD, then he shall present the beast before the priest: 12 And the priest shall value it, whether it be good or bad: as thou valuest it, who art the priest, so shall it be. 13 But if he will at all redeem it, then he shall add a fifth part thereof unto thy estimation." —  Leviticus 27:1-13

HOLINESS IN PROMISES — VOWS.

This chapter is supplementary in its character. The book properly ends with the promises and the threatenings, the solemn sanctions of the law recorded in chapter 26. Nevertheless, this chapter is not an afterthought, nor later legislation awkwardly appended to the book, but a treatise on a subject not included in the law as obligatory. No man was commanded to make a vow. It was a purely voluntary religious act. Deuteronomy xxiii, 21. Since the element of obligation was wanting, vows could not be classified with duties, and hence they were fittingly reserved as a supplement to the law. Their place in the book is justified by the fact that, having been voluntarily made, their fulfilment becomes obligatory. The practice of assuming voluntary obligations to the Deity for deliverance from death or danger, and for success in war and other enterprises, is of extremely ancient date, and is a prominent feature of the ancient pagan religions. Mosaism did not originate but only regulated the practice. Vows are of three kinds. 1) Vows of consecration or devotion,  נֶ֑דֶר (neder); 2) Vows of refraining or abstinence, אֱסָר (isar or esar); 3) Vows of destruction, חֵרֶם (cherem), the Greek ἀνάθεμα (anathema). The first class, נֶ֑דֶר (neder), is the subject of this chapter, comprising persons, (2-8,) cattle, (9-13,) houses, (14-15,) and land, (16-25,) all of which are redeemable except the sacrificed animals, the first-born, (26, 27,) persons and things under the חֵרֶם (cherem), (28, 29,) and tithes, (30-33.)

PERSONS THE OBJECTS OF VOWS, 2-8.

2. A singular vow — That is, special and extraordinary; Hebrews, “if any man definitely announces (R.V., ‘accomplishes’) a vow, souls shall be to Jehovah according to thy estimation.” The same Hebrew verb expresses the separation of a Nazarite unto the Lord. See Numbers 6:2, note. Persons who were the objects of the vow were to be redeemed according to a scale of values fixed by Moses. “This implies, clearly enough, that whenever a person was vowed redemption was to follow according to the valuation. Otherwise what was the object of valuing them? ‘Estimation’ supposes either redemption or purchase. But in the case of men (Israelites) there could be no purchasing as slaves, and therefore the object of the valuing could only have been for the purpose of buying off the person vowed to the Lord, and the fulfilment of the vow could only have consisted in the payment into the sanctuary of the price fixed by the law.” — Keil and Delitzsch. The theory that an unredeemed Israelite became a slave of the sanctuary cannot be sustained by 1 Samuel 2:11, 22, 28, since Hannah did not consecrate Samuel by a simple vow, but as a Nazarite for the whole of his life. Still less pertinent to the support of this theory is 2 Samuel 15:8, adduced by Michaelis. The valuation of persons without any thought of the relations of servitude appears further in the redemption of the firstborn.

3. Thy estimation shall be — The following is the scale of valuation according to age and sex:

A.

1. A male from one month to five years old, 5 shekels $3.03
2. From 5 years to 20 years, 20 shekels $12.12
3. From 20 to 60 years, 50 shekels $30.28
4. Above 60 years, $8.96

 

B.

1. Females from one month to 5 years old, 3 shekels $1.82
2. From 5 years to 20 years, 10 shekels $6.06
3. From 20 to 60 years, 30 shekels $18.17
4. Above 60 years $6.06

All souls are of equal value in the sight of the impartial Jehovah, but the capacity of personal service is unequal. Hence these unequal valuations of different ages and sexes. An able-bodied man’s earnings being the highest, he is to be redeemed at the highest price. The service of women, as a class, must ever command less wages than men, from the fact that the average skill of women in any handicraft common to both sexes must always be less than that of men, because of the peculiar child-bearing function breaking up the terms of service. Persons above 60 and under 20 are incompetent to render full service, if unredeemed, or to earn full wages for their own redemption. This gives some hint of the price for which the Hebrew servant sold his labour for the term of six years. “The wages of the servant are often the subject of consideration in the Scriptures, but the price of a man never.” — Cheever.

8. If he be poorer than thy estimation — If any man endeavouring to redeem himself from his vow should find the above scale of prices beyond his ability, a special estimate is to be made by the priest adjusted to the ability of the applicant. Thus the lenity of Mosaism appears.

ANIMALS VOWED, 9-13.

9. A beast of the sacrificial kinds, if unblemished, (Leviticus 22:23,) was not redeemable, but was holy unto the Lord. But if it was not fit for the altar, because of some blemish, it became a perquisite of the priests like the firstborn of cattle, verse 33.

10. He shall not alter — He shall not modify the terms of his vow by substituting any thing else than the animal vowed. Nor change — Another animal of the same species will not be accepted. “Whatever was consecrated to God by a vow or purpose of heart was considered from that moment as the Lord’s property; to change which was impiety; to withdraw, sacrilege.” — Bush. God will permit no dictation respecting the disposal of his own. It and the exchange — As a penalty for his attempted usurpation of a divine prerogative, both animals shall be holy, and tradition adds that the intermeddler was scourged besides. The tendency of this law was to discourage rash vows, and to impress both Jews and Christians with the inviolable sacredness of the object consecrated, no part of which can ever be safely recalled.

11. Any unclean beast — As the horse, ass, or camel; any domestic animal, the dog excepted, (Deuteronomy 23:18,) together with blemished sacrificial animals by Hebrew interpretation, might be vowed and its value as estimated by the priest paid into the priestly treasury.

12. Good or bad — Not blemished or unblemished, not clean or unclean but simply costly or cheap.

13. He shall add a fifth part — As the author of the vow was free to present the animal or to redeem it, his desire to redeem it would imply that the priest had somewhat undervalued it; so twenty per cent. was added to his estimate.