Leviticus 27:14-25

C. VOWS OF HOUSES AND FIELDS 27:14-25
TEXT 27:14-25

14

And when a man shall sanctify his house to be holy unto Jehovah, then the priest shall estimate it, whether it be good or bad: as the priest shall estimate it, so shall it stand.

15

And 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.

16

And if a man shall sanctify unto Jehovah part of the field of his possession, then thy estimation shall be according to the sowing thereof: the sowing of a homer of barley shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver.

17

If he sanctify his field from the year of jubilee, according to thy estimation it shall stand.

18

But if he sanctify his field after the jubilee, then the priest shall reckon unto him the money according to the years that remain unto the year of jubilee; and an abatement shall be made from thy estimation.

19

And if he that sanctified the field will indeed redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be assured to him.

20

And if he will not redeem the field, or if he have sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed any more:

21

but the field, when it goeth out in the jubilee, shall be holy unto Jehovah, as a field devoted; the possession thereof shall be the priest'S.

22

And if he sanctify unto Jehovah a field which he hath bought, which is not of the field of his possession;

23

then the priest shall reckon unto him the worth of thy estimation unto the year of jubilee: and he shall give thine estimation in that day, as a holy thing unto Jehovah.

24

In the year of jubilee the field shall return unto him of whom it was bought, even to him to whom the possession of the land belongeth.

25

And all thy estimations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall be the shekel.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS 27:14-25

681.

What is meant by the use of the terms good or bad as in Leviticus 27:14? Why no right of appeal?

682.

Doesn-'t this sound a little ridiculous to buy back your own house? Discuss.

683.

Please explain in your own words just what is meant in Leviticus 27:16.

684.

How does the year of jubilee relate to the dedication by a vow of a field?

685.

How can the field be returned to the owner?

686.

Does Leviticus 27:23 indicate that the price of the field was to be paid at the time of the vow? Discuss.

687.

Under what conditions did the field belong permanently to the priest? For what reason?

688.

What is the point of mentioning the shekel of the sanctuary in Leviticus 27:25?

PARAPHRASE 27:14-25

If someone donates his home to the Lord and then wishes to redeem it, the priest will decide its value and the man shall pay that amount plus twenty per cent, and the house will be his again. If a man dedicates any part of his field to the Lord, value it in proportion to its size, as indicated by the amount of seed required to sow it. A section of land that requires ten bushels of barley seed for sowing is valued at twenty-five dollars. If a man dedicates his field in the Year of Jubilee, then the whole estimate shall stand; but if it is after the Year of Jubilee, then the value shall be in proportion to the number of years remaining until the next Year of Jubilee. If the man decides to redeem the field, he shall pay twenty per cent in addition to the priest's valuation, and the field will be his again. But if he decides not to redeem the field, or if he has sold the field to someone else (and has given to the Lord his rights to it at the Year of Jubilee), it shall not be returned to him again. When it is freed in the Year of Jubilee, it shall belong to the Lord as a field devoted to Him, and it shall be given to the priests. If a man dedicates to the Lord a field he has bought, but which is not part of his family possession, the priest shall estimate the value until the Year of Jubilee, and he shall immediately give that estimated value to the Lord, and in the Year of Jubilee the field shall return to the original owner from whom it was bought. All the valuations shall be stated in standard money.

COMMENT 27:14-25

Leviticus 27:14-25 We continue the discussion of S. H. Kellogg: The law regarding the consecration of a man's house unto the Lord by a vow (Leviticus 27:14-15) is very simple. The priest is to estimate its value, without right of appeal. Apparently, the man might still live in it, if he desired, but only as one living in a house belonging to another; presumably, a rental was to be paid, on the basis of the priest's estimation of value, into the sanctuary treasury. If the man wished again to redeem it, then, as in the case of the beast that was vowed, he must pay into the treasury the estimated value of the house, with the addition of one-fifth.

In the case of the sanctifying or dedication of a field by a special vow two cases might arise, which are dealt with in succession. The first case (Leviticus 27:16-21) was the dedication to the Lord of a field which belonged to the Israelite by inheritance; the second (Leviticus 27:22-24), that of one which had come to him by purchase. In the former case, the priest was to fix a price upon the field on the basis of fifty shekels for so much land as would be sown with a homerabout eight bushelsof barley. In case the dedication took effect from the year of jubilee, this full price was to be paid into the Lord's treasury for the field; but if from a later year in the cycle, then the rate was to be diminished in proportion to the number of years of the jubilee period which might have already passed at the date of the vow. Inasmuch as in the case of a field which had been purchased, it was ordered that the price of the estimation should be paid down to the priest in that day (Leviticus 27:23) in which the appraisal was made, it would appear as if, in the present case, the man was allowed to pay it annually, a shekel for each year of the jubilee period, or by installments otherwise, as he might choose, as a periodic recognition of the special claim of the Lord upon that field, in consequence of his vow. Redemption of the field from the obligation of the vow was permitted under the condition of the fifth added to the priest's estimation, e.g. on the payment of sixty instead of fifty shekels (Leviticus 27:19).

If, however, without having thus redeemed the field, the man who vowed should sell it to another man, it is ordered that the field, which otherwise would revert to him again in full right of usufruct when the jubilee year came round, should be forfeited; so that When the jubilee came the exclusive right of the field would henceforth belong to the priest, as in the case of a field devoted by the ban. The intention of this regulation is evidently penal; for the field, during the time covered by the vow, was in a special sense the Lord'S; and the man had the use of it for himself only upon condition of a certain annual payment; to sell it, therefore, during that time, was, in fact, from the legal point of view, to sell property, absolute right in which he had by his vow renounced in favour of the Lord.

The case of the dedication in a vow of a field belonging to a man, not as a paternal inheritance, but by purchase (Leviticus 27:22-24), only differed from the former in that, as already remarked, immediate payment in full of the sum at which it was estimated was made obligatory; when the jubilee year came, the field reverted to the original owner, according to the law (Leviticus 25:28). The reason for thus insisting on full immediate payment, in the case of the dedication of a field acquired by purchase, is plain, when we refer to the law (Leviticus 25:25), according to which the original owner had the right of redemption guaranteed to him at any time before the jubilee. If, in the case of such a dedicated field, any part of the amount due to the sanctuary were still unpaid, obviously this, as a lien upon the land, would stand in the way of such redemption. The regulation of immediate payment is therefore intended to protect the original owner's right to redeem the field.

Leviticus 27:25 lays down the general principle that in all these estimations and commutations the shekel must be the shekel of the sanctuary, twenty gerahs to the shekel;words which are not to be understood as pointing to the existence of two distinct shekels as current, but simply as meaning that the shekel must be of full weight, such as only could pass current in transactions with the sanctuary.

FACT QUESTIONS 27:14-25

676.

There must have been some very good reasons for vowing away one's house and living in it as a tenant. Could you pose some such circumstance?

677.

The owner would really never lose the house permanently, but only till Jubilee. What advantage was this?

678.

There are two cases to be considered in the sanctifying of the land. What were they?

679.

Are we to understand that a man would live on his own farm and turn all the proceeds to the priests? If not, what is involved?

680.

How was the price of the land fixed?

681.

What would happen if the field was sold to another during the time it belonged to the priest? i.e. sold before it was redeemed?

682.

Explain Leviticus 27:25.