Leviticus 27

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

Yahweh also said to Moses/me,

2 Say to the children of Israel, If a man makes a special oath, you will give your decision as to the value of the persons for the Lord.

“Tell the Israeli people [that this is what I am saying to them]: If anyone solemnly promises to dedicate another person to [work solely] for me, the person who is dedicated to me is allowed to be free from having to do that by someone paying [to the priest] a fixed amount of money. The money that is given must be calculated by comparing it with the official pieces of silver in the Sacred Tent.

3 And you will put the value of a male from twenty years to sixty years old at fifty shekels of silver, by the scale of the holy place.

[These are the amounts that must be paid]: 50 pieces of silver for men who are between 20 and 60 years old,

4 And if it is a female, the value will be thirty shekels.

30 pieces of silver for adult women [who are between 20 and 60 years old],

5 And if the person is from five to twenty years old, the value will be twenty shekels for a male, and ten for a female.

20 pieces of silver for young men who are between five and 20 years old, ten pieces of silver for young women who are between five and 20 years old,

6 And if the person is from one month to five years old, then the value for a male will be five shekels of silver, and for a female three shekels.

five pieces of silver for boys who are between one month and five years old, three pieces of silver for girls who are between one month and five years old,

7 And for sixty years old and over, for a male the value will be fifteen shekels, and for a female, ten.

15 pieces of silver for men who are more than 60 years old, ten pieces of silver for women who are more than 60 years old.

8 But if he is poorer than the value which you have put on him, then let him be taken to the priest, and the priest will put a value on him, such as it is possible for him to give.

‘If anyone who has made such a solemn promise is very poor and unable to pay, to free that person from doing what he had promised, he must take that person to the priest. The priest will set the price [for freeing him] to be what the person who made that solemn promise is able to pay.

9 And if it is a beast of which men make offerings to the Lord, whatever any man gives of such to the Lord will be holy.

‘If someone solemnly promises to give an animal that is acceptable to be an offering to me, that animal becomes sacred [and belongs to me].

10 It may not be changed in any way, a good given for a bad, or a bad for a good; if one beast is changed for another, the two will be holy.

The person who promised to give it must not give another animal instead of the one that he promised; he must not substitute a bad animal for a good one or even a better one than the one offered. If he would substitute one animal for the other, both animals would belong to me.

11 And if it is any unclean beast, of which offerings are not made to the Lord, then let him take the beast before the priest;

If the animal that he wishes to dedicate to me is a kind that is unacceptable to be an offering to me, he must take that animal to the priest.

12 And let the priest put a value on it, if it is good or bad; whatever value the priest puts on it, so will it be.

The priest will then decide what its value is, according to the animal’s good and bad points. Whatever value the priests sets will be the value of the animal, [and that is the price that the priest must pay for the animal].

13 But if he has a desire to get it back for himself, let him give a fifth more than your value.

If the man who gave the animal later decides that he wants to buy it back, he must pay [to the priest] that price plus an additional 20 percent.

14 And if a man has given his house as holy to the Lord, then the priest will put a value on it, if it is good or bad; as the priest gives decision so will the value be fixed.

‘[Similarly], if someone dedicates his house to be a sacred gift to belong to me, the priest will decide how much it is worth, which will depend on whether the house is in good condition. Whatever the priest says that it is worth, that will be its value [and that is the price that the priest must pay for it].

15 And if the owner has a desire to get back his house, let him give a fifth more than your value, and it will be his.

If the man who dedicated his house to me later wants to buy it back, he must pay that price plus an additional 20 percent, and then the house will belong to him again.

16 And if a man gives to the Lord part of the field which is his property, then let your value be in relation to the seed which is planted in it; a measure of barley grain will be valued at fifty shekels of silver.

‘If someone dedicates to me some of the property that belongs to him and his family, its value will be determined by the number of bushels of seed that will be needed to plant seeds on that land: Its value will be ten pieces of silver for each bushel of seed.

17 If he gives his field from the year of Jubilee, the value will be fixed by your decision.

If he dedicates the land during the Year of Celebration, its full value will be that amount.

18 But if he gives his field after the year of Jubilee, the amount of the money will be worked out by the priest in relation to the number of years till the coming year of Jubilee, and the necessary amount will be taken off your value.

But if he dedicates the field after the Year of Celebration, the priest will count the number of years until the next Year of Celebration, and if there are not many years that remain, the price will be much lower [than the full price].

19 And if the man who has given the field has a desire to get it back, let him give a fifth more than the price at which it was valued and it will be his.

If the person who dedicated the field later wants to buy it back, he must pay [to the priest] the price that the priest says it is worth, plus an added one-fifth, and then the field will belong to that man again.

20 But if he has no desire to get it back, or if he has given it for a price to another man, it may not be got back again.

However, if he does not buy it back, or if it has been sold (OR, the priest has sold it) to someone else, that person will never be permitted to buy it back again.

21 But the field, when it becomes free at the year of Jubilee, will be holy to the Lord, as a field given under oath: it will be the property of the priest.

In the Year of Celebration, it will become sacred again, and it will be given to the priest.

22 And if a man gives to the Lord a field which he has got for money from another, which is not part of his heritage;

‘If someone dedicates to me some land that he has bought, land which is not part of the land that his family has always owned,

23 Then the value fixed by you up to the year of Jubilee will be worked out for him by the priest, and in that day he will give the amount of your value as holy to the Lord.

the priest will count the number of years until the next Year of Celebration to determine how much it is worth, and the man must pay that amount to the priest on that day, [and then that land will belong to that man again].

24 In the year of Jubilee the field will go back to him from whom he got it, that is, to him whose heritage it was.

But in the Year of Celebration, the land will again be owned by the person from whom he bought it, the person whose family had always owned that land.

25 And let all your values be based on the shekel of the holy place, that is, twenty gerahs to the shekel.

All the silver that is paid must be compared with the official pieces of silver in the Sacred Tent.

26 But a man may not give by oath to the Lord the first-fruits of cattle which are offered to the Lord: if it is an ox or a sheep it is the Lord's.

‘No one is permitted to dedicate to me the firstborn of any cow or sheep, because the firstborn already belongs to me [DOU].

27 And if it is an unclean beast, then the owner of it may give money to get it back, in agreement with the value fixed by you, by giving a fifth more; or if it is not taken back, let it be given for money in agreement with your valuing.

If someone gives to me a kind of animal that is not acceptable to me, that person may later buy it back by paying what it is worth plus an additional 20 percent of its value. If he does not buy it back, it must be sold (OR, the priest must sell it) for its standard price.

28 But nothing which a man has given completely to the Lord, out of all his property, of man or beast, or of the land which is his heritage, may be given away or got back in exchange for money; anything completely given is most holy to the Lord.

‘However, no slave or animal or family land that someone owns can be sold or bought back after it has been dedicated to me [and no price has been paid for it]. That kind of gift belongs to me permanently/forever.

29 Any man given completely to the Lord may not be got back: he is certainly to be put to death.

‘No person who has [done something that I consider to be very wicked] is permitted to be freed [from being punished]; that person must surely be executed.

30 And every tenth part of the land, of the seed planted, or of the fruit of trees, is holy to the Lord.

‘One tenth of all the crops and grain or fruit that is produced on anyone’s land is sacred and belongs to me.

31 And if a man has a desire to get back any of the tenth part which he has given, let him give a fifth more.

If anyone wants to buy back any of that tenth, he must pay [to the priest] what it is worth plus an additional 20 percent.

32 And a tenth part of the herd and of the flock, whatever goes under the rod of the valuer, will be holy to the Lord.

One of every ten domestic animals belongs to me. When a shepherd counts his animals [MTY] [to decide which ones he will give to me], he must mark every tenth one as belonging to me.

33 He may not make search to see if it is good or bad, or make any changes in it; and if he makes exchange of it for another, the two will be holy; he will not get them back again.

When he does that, he must not pick out the good ones for himself or leave the bad ones, or substitute bad ones for good ones. If he substitutes one animal for another, both animals will belong to me, and he will not be permitted to buy them back (OR, the shepherd cannot buy them back).’”

34 These are the orders which the Lord gave to Moses for the children of Israel in Mount Sinai.

Those are the commands that Yahweh gave to Moses/me on Sinai Mountain [to tell to the people].