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- The LORD said to Moses,
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- "Speak to the Israelites and say to them:
- 'If anyone makes a special vow to dedicate persons to the LORD
- by giving equivalent values,
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- set the value of a male between the ages of twenty and sixty
- at fifty shekels of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel;
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- and if it is a female, set her value at thirty shekels.
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- If it is a person between the ages of five and twenty,
- set the value of a male at twenty shekels and of a female at ten shekels.
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- If it is a person between one month and five years,
- set the value of a male at five shekels of silver and
- that of a female at three shekels of silver.
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- If it is a person sixty years old or more,
- set the value of a male at fifteen shekels and of a female at ten shekels.
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- If anyone making the vow is too poor to pay the specified amount,
- he is to present the person to the priest, who will set the value for him
- according to what the man making the vow can afford.
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- "'If what he vowed is an animal that is acceptable as an offering to the LORD,
- such an animal given to the LORD becomes holy.
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- He must not exchange it or substitute a good one for a bad one,
- or a bad one for a good one; if he should substitute one animal for another,
- both it and the substitute become holy.
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- If what he vowed is a ceremonially unclean animal--
- one that is not acceptable as an offering to the LORD--
- the animal must be presented to the priest,
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- who will judge its quality as good or bad.
- Whatever value the priest then sets, that is what it will be.
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- If the owner wishes to redeem the animal, he must add a fifth to its value.
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- "'If a man dedicates his house as something holy to the LORD,
- the priest will judge its quality as good or bad.
- Whatever value the priest then sets, so it will remain.
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- If the man who dedicates his house redeems it,
- he must add a fifth to its value, and the house will again become his.
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- "'If a man dedicates to the LORD part of his family land,
- its value is to be set according to the amount of seed required for it--
- fifty shekels of silver to a homer of barley seed.
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- If he dedicates his field during the Year of Jubilee,
- the value that has been set remains.
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- But if he dedicates his field after the Jubilee,
- the priest will determine the value according to the number of years
- that remain until the next Year of Jubilee, and its set value will be reduced.
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- If the man who dedicates the field wishes to redeem it,
- he must add a fifth to its value, and the field will again become his.
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- If, however, he does not redeem the field,
- or if he has sold it to someone else, it can never be redeemed.
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- When the field is released in the Jubilee, it will become holy,
- like a field devoted to the LORD; it will become the property of the priests.
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- "'If a man dedicates to the LORD a field he has bought,
- which is not part of his family land,
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- the priest will determine its value up to the Year of Jubilee,
- and the man must pay its value on that day as something holy to the LORD.
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- In the Year of Jubilee the field will revert to the person from whom he bought it,
- the one whose land it was.
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- Every value is to be set according to the sanctuary shekel, twenty gerahs to the shekel.
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- "'No one, however, may dedicate the firstborn of an animal,
- since the firstborn already belongs to the LORD;
- whether an ox or a sheep, it is the LORD's.
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- If it is one of the unclean animals, he may buy it back at its set value,
- adding a fifth of the value to it. If he does not redeem it,
- it is to be sold at its set value.
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- "'But nothing that a man owns and devotes to the LORD--
- whether man or animal or family land--may be sold or redeemed;
- everything so devoted is most holy to the LORD.
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- "'No person devoted to destruction may be ransomed; he must be put to death.
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- "'A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil
- or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.
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- If a man redeems any of his tithe, he must add a fifth of the value to it.
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- The entire tithe of the herd and flock--
- every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd's rod--
- will be holy to the LORD.
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- He must not pick out the good from the bad or make any substitution.
- If he does make a substitution, both the animal and its substitute
- become holy and cannot be redeemed.'"
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- These are the commands the LORD gave Moses
- on Mount Sinai for the Israelites.