Leviticus 27:14-24
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
14 [a]When someone dedicates a house as sacred to the Lord,[b] the priest shall determine its value in keeping with its good or bad qualities, and the value set by the priest shall stand. 15 A person dedicating a house who then wishes to redeem it shall pay one fifth more than the price thus established, and then it will again belong to that individual.(A)
16 If someone dedicates to the Lord a portion of hereditary land, its valuation shall be made according to the amount of seed required to sow it, the acreage sown with a homer[c] of barley seed being valued at fifty silver shekels. 17 If the dedication of a field is made at the beginning of a jubilee period, the full valuation shall hold; 18 but if it is some time after this, the priest shall estimate its money value according to the number of years left until the next jubilee year, with a corresponding reduction on the valuation.(B) 19 A person dedicating a field who then wishes to redeem[d](C) it shall pay one fifth more than the price thus established, and so reclaim it. 20 If, instead of redeeming such a field, one sells it[e] to another, it may no longer be redeemed; 21 but at the jubilee it shall be released(D) as sacred[f] to the Lord; like a field that is put under the ban, it shall become priestly property.
22 If someone dedicates to the Lord a field that was purchased and was not part of hereditary property, 23 the priest shall compute its value in proportion to the number of years until the next jubilee, and on the same day the person shall pay the price thus established, a sacred donation to the Lord; 24 at the jubilee the field shall revert to the hereditary owner of this land from whom it had been purchased.[g]
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 27:14–24 These verses deal with dedications. They take effect when uttered and, unlike vows, they are not conditional. They are related to the jubilee year laws in 25:23–31.
- 27:14 House as sacred to the Lord: the house becomes sanctuary property and presumably may be sold to another if the owner does not redeem it (cf. notes on vv. 20 and 21). While 25:31 requires that unredeemed houses in unwalled towns be returned to the original owners at the jubilee, in the laws here such houses apparently become the property of the sanctuary (cf. v. 21). It is likely that dedicated houses in a walled city needed to be redeemed within one year, following 25:29–30.
- 27:16 Homer: see note on Is 5:10.
- 27:19 Redeem: the person apparently can redeem the land up to the jubilee year, following 25:23–28. See note on v. 21.
- 27:20 If…one sells it: the verse is difficult since the person should not be able to sell the land after it is dedicated. The verb “sells” may be construed impersonally here: “If…it is sold,” i.e., by the sanctuary.
- 27:21 Released as sacred: the dedication changes the ownership of the land. It now belongs to the sanctuary. It returns to the sanctuary’s possession after leasing it out (v. 20). Presumably if the land remained in the sanctuary’s possession until the jubilee, and it was not redeemed, the land would belong permanently to the sanctuary and priests.
- 27:24 In contrast to the cases in vv. 14–15 and 16–21, this land returns to the original owner since that individual did not personally make the dedication. The principle is that one cannot permanently dedicate what one does not own. Cf. 2 Sm 24:22–25.
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