The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel
and say to them, If anyone makes a special vow to the LORD
involving the valuation of persons, then the valuation of a male
from twenty years old up to sixty years old shall be fifty shekels
of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. If the person
is a female, the valuation shall be thirty shekels. If the person
is from five years old up to twenty years old, the valuation shall
be for a male twenty shekels, and for a female ten shekels. If the
person is from a month old up to five years old, the valuation
shall be for a male five shekels of silver, and for a female the
valuation shall be three shekels of silver. And if the person is
sixty years old or over, then the valuation for a male shall be
fifteen shekels, and for a female ten shekels. And if someone is
too poor to pay the valuation, then he shall be made to stand
before the priest, and the priest shall value him; the priest shall
value him according to what the vower can afford.
“If the vow is an animal that may be offered as an offering to
the LORD, all of it that he gives to the LORD is holy. He shall not
exchange it or make a substitute for it, good for bad, or bad for
good; and if he does in fact substitute one animal for another,
then both it and the substitute shall be holy. And if it is any
unclean animal that may not be offered as an offering to the LORD,
then he shall stand the animal before the priest, and the priest
shall value it as either good or bad; as the priest values it, so
it shall be. But if he wishes to redeem it, he shall add a fifth to
the valuation.
“When a man dedicates his house as a holy gift to the LORD, the
priest shall value it as either good or bad; as the priest values
it, so it shall stand. And if the donor wishes to redeem his house,
he shall add a fifth to the valuation price, and it shall be his.
“If a man dedicates to the LORD part of the land that is his
possession, then the valuation shall be in proportion to its seed.
A homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver.
If he dedicates his field from the year of jubilee, the valuation
shall stand, but if he dedicates his field after the jubilee, then
the priest shall calculate the price according to the years that
remain until the year of jubilee, and a deduction shall be made
from the valuation. And if he who dedicates the field wishes to
redeem it, then he shall add a fifth to its valuation price, and it
shall remain his. But if he does not wish to redeem the field, or
if he has sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed
anymore. But the field, when it is released in the jubilee, shall
be a holy gift to the LORD, like a field that has been devoted. The
priest shall be in possession of it. If he dedicates to the LORD a
field that he has bought, which is not a part of his possession,
then the priest shall calculate the amount of the valuation for it
up to the year of jubilee, and the man shall give the valuation on
that day as a holy gift to the LORD. In the year of jubilee the
field shall return to him from whom it was bought, to whom the land
belongs as a possession. Every valuation shall be according to the
shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall make a shekel.
“But a firstborn of animals, which as a firstborn belongs to the
LORD, no man may dedicate; whether ox or sheep, it is the LORD's.
And if it is an unclean animal, then he shall buy it back at the
valuation, and add a fifth to it; or, if it is not redeemed, it
shall be sold at the valuation.
“But no devoted thing that a man devotes to the LORD, of anything
that he has, whether man or beast, or of his inherited field, shall
be sold or redeemed; every devoted thing is most holy to the LORD.
No one devoted, who is to be devoted for destruction from mankind,
shall be ransomed; he shall surely be put to death.
“Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of
the fruit of the trees, is the LORD's; it is holy to the LORD. If a
man wishes to redeem some of his tithe, he shall add a fifth to it.
And every tithe of herds and flocks, every tenth animal of all that
pass under the herdsman's staff, shall be holy to the LORD. One
shall not differentiate between good or bad, neither shall he make
a substitute for it; and if he does substitute for it, then both it
and the substitute shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.”
These are the commandments that the LORD commanded Moses for the
people of Israel on Mount Sinai.
