Leviticus 27:28

_NOTWITHSTANDING NO DEVOTED THING, THAT A MAN SHALL DEVOTE UNTO THE LORD OF ALL THAT HE HATH, BOTH OF MAN AND BEAST, AND OF THE FIELD OF HIS POSSESSION, SHALL BE SOLD OR REDEEMED: EVERY DEVOTED THING IS MOST HOLY UNTO THE LORD._ No devoted thing ... shall be sold or redeemed. This relates to vows of the most solemn kind-the devotee accompanying his vow with a solemn imprecation on himself not to fail in accomplishing his declared purpose. SHALL SURELY BE PUT TO DEATH. This announcement imported, not that the person was to be sacrificed or doomed to a violent death, but only that he should remain until death unalterably in the devoted condition. Since misconceptions exist as to the precise import of this statute, and it has been supposed to authorize human sacrifices, of which Jephthah's daughter and the surrender of seven of Saul's sons to the Gibeonites are represented as instances in...

26-33 Things or persons devoted, are distinguished from things or persons that were only sanctified. Devoted things were most holy to the Lord, and could neither be taken back nor applied to other purposes. Whatever productions they had the benefit, God must be honoured with the tenth of, if it could be applied. Thus they acknowledge God to be the Owner of their land, the Giver of its fruits, and themselves to be his tenants, and dependants upon him. Thus they gave him thanks for the plenty they enjoyed, and besought his favour in the continuance of it. We are taught to honour the Lord with our substance....

Verse Leviticus 27:28. _NO DEVOTED THING - SHALL BE SOLD OR REDEEMED_] This is the חרם _cherem_, which always meant an absolute unredeemable grant to God....

DEVOTED THING - The primary meaning of the Heb. word חרם _chērem_ is something cut off, or shut up. Its specific meaning in the Law is, that which is cut off from common use and given up in some sense to Yahweh, without the right of recal or commutation. It is applied to a field wholly appropriated to the sanctuary Leviticus 27:21, and to whatever was doomed to destruction 1 Samuel 15:21; 1 Kings 20:42. Our translators have often rendered the word by “cursed,” or “a curse,” which in some places may convey the right sense, but it should be remembered that the terms are not identical in their compass of meaning ...

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

NOTWITHSTANDING, NO DEVOTED THING THAT A MAN SHALL DEVOTE UNTO THE LORD,.... This is a different vow from the former, expressed by "sanctifying"; for though "sanctifying" and "devoting" were both vows, yet the latter had an execration or curse added to it, by which a man imprecated a curse upon himself, if that itself, which he devoted, was put to any other use than that for which he devoted it; wherefore this sort of vow was absolute and irrevocable, and what was vowed was unalienable, and therefore not to be sold or redeemed as afterwards expressed, whereas things sanctified might: OF ALL THAT HE HATH, [BOTH] OF MAN AND BEAST, AND OF THE FIELD OF HIS POSSESSION, SHALL BE SOLD OR REDEEMED; but must be put to the use for which it was devoted. This must be understood of such as were his own, and he had a right to dispose of; which were in his own power, as Aben Ezra interprets the phrase...

REDEEMED Hebrew, "goel," Redemption (Kinsman type). (_ See Scofield) - (Isaiah 59:20). _...

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 ...

28F. THE BAN.Devoted things are things dedicated to God without possibility of redemption, _i.e._ put under the ban and not to be touched by men (pp. 99, 114, Deuteronomy 2:34 *, Judges 1:17 *). Hence, according to the old rule, a human being so devoted must be put to death (_cf._ Joshua 6:17 *, 1 Samuel 15:21). There are no later instances. Such an act, mentioned as it is here, if not simply looking back to historical instances, must refer only to capital crimes, all of which now come under the cognisance of the priests. Ezekiel 44:29 assig

NOTWITHSTANDING. See note on Leviticus 27:26. IS. it [is]....