Leviticus 27:2

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them,.... This being an affair which only concerned them; for the Jewish writers say (h), by this phrase, the children of Israel, Gentiles are

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When a man shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be for the LORD by thy estimation.

A singular vow, or, an eminent or hard or wonderful vow; not concerning things, which was not strange, but customary; but concerning persons, as it here follows, which he vowed, or by vow devoted unto the Lord, which indeed was unusual and difficult: yet there want not instances of such vows, and of persons which devoted either themselves or their children to the service of God, and that either more strictly and particularly, as the Nazarites and the Levites, , and for these there was no redemption admitted, but they were in person to perform the service to which they were devoted; or more largely and generally, as some who were not Levites, nor intended themselves or their children should be Nazarites, might yet, through zeal to God and his service, or to obtain God’ s help in giving them some mercy which they wanted and desired, or in freeing them from some evil felt or feared, devoted themselves or their children to the service of God and of the sanctuary, though not in such a way as the Levites, which they were forbidden to do, yet in some kind of subserviency to them. And because there might be too great a number of persons thus dedicated, which might be burdensome and chargeable to the sanctuary, therefore an exchange is allowed, and the priests are directed to impose and require a tax for their redemption. For the Lord, i.e. dedicated to the Lord, and consequently to the priest. By whose estimation? Answ. Either, 1. Thine, O priest, to whom the valuation of things belonged, and here is ascribed, . Or rather, 2. Thine, O man that vowest, as appears from , where his estimation is opposed to the priest’ s valuation. Nor was there any fear of his partiality in his own cause, for the price is particularly limited. But where the price is undetermined, there, to avoid that inconvenience, the priest is to value it, as ,12.

Leviticus 27:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When a man shall make a singular vow, the persons [shall be] for the LORD by thy estimation.Ver. 2. When a man shall make a singular vow.] Votum eximium, as Vatablus renders it, a personal, particular, voluntary vow; which, drawn by some peculiar reason, a man promiseth to God of his own accord. It is a binding of one’ s self to God by a holy and religious promise, to do or not to do something lawful, possible, useful for our increase in godliness. As here of persons, afterwards of things: all which might be redeemed, under such exception as the law provideth, by the estimation of the priest for certain shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary: this was double to the ordinary shekel. The aim and intent of these personal vows was, say some, that the price of their redemption might be employed either for the maintenance of the priests, or for the repair of the sanctuary. Neither by such vows do we cast any new snares upon ourselves, but rather a new tie to the payment of an old debt.

(2) Shall make a singular vow.—Better, shall consecrate a vow. (See Leviticus 22:21.) According to the interpretation of this phrase which obtained during the second Temple it denotes shall pronounce a vow. Hence the ancient Chaldee Versions render it, “shall distinctly pronounce a vow.” Accordingly, no vow mentally made or conceived was deemed binding. It had to be distinctly pronounced in words. The form of the vow is nowhere given in the Bible. Like many other points of detail, the wording of it was left to the administrators of the law. They divided vows into two classes: (1) Positive vows, by which a man bound himself to consecrate for religious purposes his own person, those members of his family over whom he had control, or any portion of his property, and for this kind of vow the formula was “Behold I consecrate this to the Lord”; and (2) Negative vows, by which he promised to abstain from enjoying a certain thing, for which the formula was, “Such and such a thing be unlawful to me for so many days, weeks, or for ever.” The persons shall be for the Lord by thy estimation.—Better, souls to the Lord according to thy estimation., that is, the vow consists of consecrating persons to the Lord with the intention of redeeming by money the persons thus consecrated, according to the valuation put upon them by Moses. This part of the verse explains the nature of the vow, and takes it for granted that by consecrating a human being to God by a vow is meant to substitute the money value for him. By the suffix, “thy estimation,” Moses is meant, to whom these regulations are here Divinely communicated, and upon whom it devolved in the first instance to carry out the law. (See Leviticus 5:15; Leviticus 5:18.) During the second Temple any Israelite could estimate the money value of a person thus vowed to the Lord.

Verse 2. When a man shall make a singular vow] The verse is short and obscure, and may be translated thus: A man who shall have separated a vow, according to thy estimation, of souls unto the Lord; which may be paraphrased thus: He who shall have vowed or consecrated a soul, i. e., a living creature, whether man or beast, if he wish to redeem what he has thus vowed or consecrated, he shall ransom or redeem it according to the priest's estimation; for the priest shall judge of the properties, qualifications, and age of the person or beast, and the circumstances of the person who has vowed it, and shall regulate the value accordingly; and the money shall be put into his hands for the service of the sanctuary. A vow (says Mr. Ainsworth) is a religious promise made unto the Lord, and for the most part with prayer, and paid with thanksgiving, Numbers 21:2-3; Psalms 66:12; Psalms 66:14. Vows were either of abstinence, such as are spoken of Nu 30:1-2, and the vow of the Nazarite, Numbers 6:1-21; or they were to give something to the Lord, as sacrifices, Leviticus 7:16, or the value of persons, beasts, houses, or lands, concerning which the law is here given. A man might vow or devote himself, his children, (Leviticus 27:5-6), his domestics, his cattle, his goods, c. And in this chapter rules are laid down for the redemption of all these things. But if, after consecrating these things, he refused to redeem them, then they became the Lord's property for ever. The persons continued all their lives devoted to the service of the sanctuary the goods were sold for the profit of the temple or the priests; the animals, if clean, were offered in sacrifice; if not proper for sacrifice, were sold, and the price devoted to sacred uses. This is a general view of the different laws relative to vows, mentioned in this chapter.

2. accomplish a vow] rather, as mg., make a special (lit. hard) vow. For the definition of a vow, as compared with other classes of offerings, see on Leviticus 7:11. It was the utterance, and not merely the intention, that constituted the binding character of a vow (Deuteronomy 23:22). In this first case, viz. that of persons being vowed, the redemption might be made by an offering of money, in accordance with an estimate adapted to the particular case. R.V. mg. is nearer the Heb. than the text, but in strict grammar its ‘of’ should be omitted, ‘persons’ being in apposition to the word ‘vow’ in the original. The pronoun ‘thy,’ if it stands, seems to refer to Moses, but see on Leviticus 27:13. The estimate evidently turned upon the comparative strength and capability of work to be fairly expected in the two sexes and at various periods of life, in fact, in modern phraseology, on their value in the labour market.

Rather, When a man makes a special vow which concerns thy valuation of persons to Yahweh, if thy estimation shall be of the male, etc.

PERSONS THE OBJECTS OF VOWS, Leviticus 27:2-8. 2. A singular vow — That is, special and extraordinary; Hebrews, “if any man definitely announces (R.V., ‘accomplishes’) a vow, souls shall be to