"Give the following instructions to the Israelites: If you make a special vow to dedicate someone to the LORD by paying the value of that person,
here is the scale of values to be used. A man between the ages of twenty and sixty is valued at fifty pieces of silver;
a woman of that age is valued at thirty pieces of silver.
A boy between five and twenty is valued at twenty pieces of silver; a girl of that age is valued at ten pieces of silver.
A boy between the ages of one month and five years is valued at five pieces of silver; a girl of that age is valued at three pieces of silver.
A man older than sixty is valued at fifteen pieces of silver; a woman older than sixty is valued at ten pieces of silver.
If you desire to make such a vow but cannot afford to pay the prescribed amount, go to the priest and he will evaluate your ability to pay. You will then pay the amount decided by the priest.
"If your vow involves giving a clean animal--one that is acceptable as an offering to the LORD--then your gift to the LORD will be considered holy.
The animal should never be exchanged or substituted for another--neither a good animal for a bad one nor a bad animal for a good one. But if such an exchange is in fact made, then both the original animal and the substitute will be considered holy.
But if your vow involves an unclean animal--one that is not acceptable as an offering to the LORD--then you must bring the animal to the priest.
He will assess its value, and his assessment will be final.
If you want to redeem the animal, you must pay the value set by the priest, plus 20 percent.
"If you dedicate a house to the LORD, the priest must come to assess its value. The priest's assessment will be final.
If you wish to redeem the house, you must pay the value set by the priest, plus 20 percent. Then the house will again belong to you.
"If you dedicate to the LORD a piece of your ancestral property, its value will be assessed by the amount of seed required to plant it--fifty pieces of silver for an area that produces five bushels of barley seed.
If the field is dedicated to the LORD in the Year of Jubilee, then the entire assessment will apply.
But if the field is dedicated after the Year of Jubilee, the priest must assess the land's value in proportion to the years left until the next Year of Jubilee.
If you decide to redeem the dedicated field, you must pay the land's value as assessed by the priest, plus 20 percent. Then the field will again belong to you.
But if you decide not to redeem the field, or if the field is sold to someone else by the priests, it can never be redeemed.
When the field is released in the Year of Jubilee, it will be holy, a field specially set apart for the LORD. It will become the property of the priests.
"If you dedicate to the LORD a field that you have purchased but which is not part of your ancestral property,
the priest must assess its value based on the years until the next Year of Jubilee. You must then give the assessed value of the land as a sacred donation to the LORD.
In the Year of Jubilee the field will be released to the original owner from whom you purchased it.
All the value assessments must be measured in terms of the standard sanctuary shekel.
"You may not dedicate to the LORD the firstborn of your cattle or sheep because the firstborn of these animals already belong to him.
However, if it is the firstborn of a ceremonially unclean animal, you may redeem it by paying the priest's assessment of its worth, plus 20 percent. If you do not redeem it, the priest may sell it to someone else for its assessed value.
"However, anything specially set apart by the LORD--whether a person, an animal, or an inherited field--must never be sold or redeemed. Anything devoted in this way has been set apart for the LORD as holy.
A person specially set apart by the LORD for destruction cannot be redeemed. Such a person must be put to death.
"A tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain or fruit, belongs to the LORD and must be set apart to him as holy.
If you want to redeem the LORD's tenth of the fruit or grain, you must pay its value, plus 20 percent.
The LORD also owns every tenth animal counted off from your herds and flocks. They are set apart to him as holy.
The tenth animal must not be selected on the basis of whether it is good or bad, and no substitutions will be allowed. If any exchange is in fact made, then both the original animal and the substituted one will be considered holy and cannot be redeemed."
These are the commands that the LORD gave to the Israelites through Moses on Mount Sinai.