Vows assessed according to means

Vows, Valuations, and Tithes · Leviticus 27

Story guide: Before a white-linen priest, households of adult men and women, youths, young children held by parents, and elders bring voluntary special vows. Separate standard silver weight groups sit on a table, while the priest reduces the assessment compassionately for a poor vow-maker according to means. No people on auction block, price labels, servitude, coins attached to bodies, coercion, or visible deity.

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1And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

2Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: When a man makes a special vow, involving the valuation of persons to Yahweh,

3And your valuation for the male from twenty years old up to sixty years old shall be fifty shekels of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel.

4But if it is a female, then your valuation shall be thirty shekels.

5And if it is from five years old up to twenty years old, your valuation shall be twenty shekels for the male and ten shekels for the female.

6If it is from a month old up to five years old, your valuation for the male shall be five shekels of silver, and for the female your valuation shall be three shekels of silver.

7And if from sixty years old and upward, if male, then your valuation shall be fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels.

8But if he is too poor for your valuation, then he shall be made to stand before the priest, and the priest shall assess him; the priest shall assess him according to what the one making the vow can afford.

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