Leviticus 27:25

_AND ALL THY ESTIMATIONS SHALL BE ACCORDING TO THE SHEKEL OF THE SANCTUARY: TWENTY GERAHS SHALL BE THE SHEKEL._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

14-25 Our houses, lands, cattle, and all our substance, must be used to the glory of God. It is acceptable to him that a portion be given to support his worship, and to promote his cause. But God would not approve such a degree of zeal as ruined a man's family....

Verse Leviticus 27:25. _SHEKEL OF THE SANCTUARY_] A standard shekel; the standard being kept in the sanctuary to try and regulate all the weights in the land by. See Genesis 20:16; Genesis 23:15....

On the shekel and the gerah, see Exodus 30:13, note; Exodus 38:24, note....

APPENDIX. EXPOSITION The final chapter, attached to the book after the concluding exhortation, is a short treatise on persons (Leviticus 27:2), animals (Leviticus 27:9-3), houses (Leviticus 27:14, Leviticus 27:15), lauds (Leviticus 27:16-3), vowed to God; and on the commutation of vows. A man might vow to the service of God whatever he had a right over, that is, himself, his wife, his children, his slaves, his beasts, his houses, his fields. In case persons were vowed, the rule was

AND ALL THY ESTIMATION SHALL BE ACCORDING TO THE SHEKEL OF THE SANCTUARY,.... The shekel kept in the sanctuary, which was the standard of all shekels; not that there was a shekel in the sanctuary different from the common one; for every shekel ought to have been as that, of the full weight and worth of it; and the estimation was to be according to such a shekel, and the money paid in such, even in full weight: TWENTY GERAHS SHALL BE THE SHEKEL; which the Targum of Jonathan calls "meahs" or "oboli", one of which was about three halfpence of our money, scarce so much, and weighed near eleven grains, as Bishop Cumberland i has calculated: see Ezekiel 45:12. i Of Scripture Weights and Measures, ch. 4. p. 111....

VII. CONCERNING VOWS The Claims of Jehovah Realized CHAPTER 27 _ 1. The singular vow (Leviticus 27:1)_ 2. The sacrifice (Leviticus 27:9) 3. Concerning the house (Leviticus 27:14) 4. Concerning the land (Leviticus 27:16) 5. Concerning the firstling (Leviticus 27:26) 6. Devoted things (Leviticus 27:28) 7. All holy to Jehovah ...

COMMUTATION FOR LAND. In this case the question of the interval before Jubile arises, as, in the case of a man, the period when he will be past work (Leviticus 27:7). The standard taken is the sowing of a homer of barley, which is regarded as equivalent to the labour of a man in his prime, about £ 7. A homer= about 11 bushels (p. 115). Kennedy (HDB, Weights) points out that in the Mishna the size of a field is often computed by the amount of seed needed to sow it. The area of 2 seahs is fixed in the Mishna as the area of the Tabernacle, 100 × 50 cubits. Thus, the standard taken is a field which will need 11 bushels to sow it, _i.e._ about 4 acres. If the period of fifty years has run part of its course, deductions are made on the principle of a partly expired lease. If the field is bought back for a lump sum, the additional 20 per cent, is to be paid. If the person who has vowed the l

AND ALL THY ESTIMATIONS, &C.— I find the following note on this verse in Dr. Church's Bible, in which he follows the opinion of Bishop Wilkins. "So great care was taken among the Jews for the preservation of commutative justice from all abuse and falsification in weights and measures, that the public standards, by which all other measures were to be tried and allowed, were with much religion preserved in the sanctuary; the care of them being committed to the priests and Levites, whose office it was to look unto all manner of measures and sizes, 1 Chronicles 23:29. Hence this frequent expression, _according to the shekel,_ &c. which doth not refer to any weight or coin distinct from, or more than the vulgar, as some fondly conceive; but doth only oblige men, in their dealing and traffic, to make use of such just measures, as were agreeable to the public standards kept

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 ma...