Vows That Faith Will Not Recall

GOD spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: When anyone explicitly vows to GOD the equivalent for a human being, the following scale shall apply: If it is a male from twenty to sixty years of age, the equivalent is fifty shekels of silver by the sanctuary weight; if it is a female, the equivalent is thirty shekels. If the age is from five years to twenty years, the equivalent is twenty shekels for a male and ten shekels for a female. If the age is from one month to five years, the equivalent for a male is five shekels of silver, and the equivalent for a female is three shekels of silver. If the age is sixty years or over, the equivalent is fifteen shekels in the case of a male and ten shekels for a female. But if someone cannot afford the equivalent, they shall be presented before the priest, and the priest shall make an assessment; the priest shall make the assessment according to what the vower can afford. If [the vow concerns] any animal that may be brought as an offering to GOD, any such that may be given to GOD shall be holy. One may not exchange or substitute another for it, either good for bad, or bad for good; if one does substitute one animal for another, the thing vowed and its substitute shall both be holy. If [the vow concerns] any impure animal that may not be brought as an offering to GOD, the animal shall be presented before the priest, and the priest shall assess it. Whether high or low, whatever assessment is set by the priest shall stand; and if one wishes to redeem it, one-fifth must be added to its assessment. Regarding anyone who consecrates a house to GOD: The priest shall assess it. Whether high or low, as the priest assesses it, so it shall stand; and if the one who has consecrated the house wishes to redeem it, one-fifth must be added to the sum at which it was assessed, and then it shall be returned. If anyone consecrates to GOD a land-holding, its assessment shall be in accordance with its seed requirement: fifty shekels of silver to a ḥomer of barley seed. If the land is consecrated as of the jubilee year, its assessment stands. But if the land is consecrated after the jubilee, the priest shall compute the price according to the years that are left until the jubilee year, and its assessment shall be so reduced; and if the one who consecrated the land wishes to redeem it, one-fifth must be added to the sum at which it was assessed, and it shall be passed back. But if the one [who consecrated it] did not redeem the land, and the land was sold to another party, it shall no longer be redeemable: when it is released in the jubilee, the land shall be holy to GOD, as land proscribed; it becomes the priest’s holding. If one consecrates to GOD land that was purchased, which is not one’s land-holding, the priest shall compute the proportionate assessment up to the jubilee year, and the assessment shall be paid as of that day, a sacred donation to GOD. In the jubilee year the land shall revert to the one from whom it was bought, whose holding the land is. All assessments shall be by the sanctuary weight, the shekel being twenty gerahs. A firstling of animals, however, which—as a firstling—is GOD’s, cannot be consecrated by anybody; whether ox or sheep, it is GOD’s. But if it is of impure animals, it may be ransomed at its assessment, with one-fifth added; if it is not redeemed, it shall be sold at its assessment. But of all that anyone owns, be it human or animal or land-holding, nothing that has been proscribed for GOD may be sold or redeemed; every proscribed thing is totally consecrated to GOD. No human being who has been proscribed can be ransomed: they shall be put to death. All tithes from the land, whether seed from the ground or fruit from the tree, are GOD’s; they are holy to GOD. If someone wishes to redeem any of their tithes, one-fifth must be added to them. All tithes of the herd or flock—of all that passes under the shepherd’s staff, every tenth one—shall be holy to GOD. One must not look out for good as against bad, or make substitution for it. If one does make substitution for it, then it and its substitute shall both be holy: it cannot be redeemed. These are the commandments that GOD gave Moses for the Israelite people on Mount Sinai.

Leviticus 27:1-20 outlines the scale of vowed equivalents for persons, clean and unclean animals, houses, and land. The chapter does not address sincerity in words but the costliness of words once spoken. A vow in Israel was not a suggestion; it was a transaction that bound the vower's property to the sanctuary. The priest's role was not to judge motives but to appraise value, so that what was vowed could be redeemed or retained at a fixed, sanctuary-weight price. Faith, in this final chapter of Leviticus, is measured by what a person is willing to let God keep.