This chapter is about symbolically dedicating a person, animal or piece of property to the LORD. There is some awkward, at least by our standards, discussion of what a person is worth but the real point is that anything dedicated to the LORD is holy.

Leviticus 27

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying:

2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them ‘When someone makes a special vow, the people involved shall be for the LORD by your estimation.

3 Your valuation shall be of the male from twenty years old even to sixty years old, and by your estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary.

4 If it is a female, then your estimation shall be thirty shekels.

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

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

7 If it is from sixty years old and above; if it be a male, then your estimation shall be fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels.

8 But if he is poorer than your estimation, then he shall present himself before the priest, and the priest shall value him; according to his ability that made the vow shall the priest value him.

9 If it be an animal, which men may offer to the LORD, all that any man gives of such to the LORD shall be holy.

10 He shall not alter it, nor change it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good: and if he shall at all change animal for animal, then it and that exchanged for it shall be holy.

11 If it is any unclean animal, of which they do not offer a sacrifice to the LORD, then he shall present the animal before the priest:

12 And the priest shall value it, whether it is good or bad: as you value it, who is the priest, so shall it be.

13 But if he will redeem it, then he shall add a fifth part to your estimation.

14 When a man sanctifies his house to be holy to the LORD, then the priest shall estimate it, whether it be good or bad: as the priest shall estimate it, so shall it stand.

15 And if he that sanctified it will redeem his house, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of your estimation to it, and it shall be his.

16 If a man sanctifies to the LORD some part of a field of his possession, then your estimation shall be according to the seed needed to sow it: a homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver.

17 If he sanctifies his field during the year of Jubilee, according to your estimation it shall stand.

18 But if he sanctifies his field after the Jubilee, then the priest shall reason with him the money according to the years that remain, even to the year of the Jubilee, and it shall be subtracted from your estimation.

19 If he that sanctified the field will in any wise redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of your estimation to it, and it shall be his.

20 And if he will not redeem the field, or if he has sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed any more.

21 But the field, when it goes out in the Jubilee, shall be holy to the LORD, as a field devoted; it shall belong to the priest.

22 If a man sanctify to the LORD a field which he has bought, which is not of the fields of his possession;

23 Then the priest shall reason to him the worth of your estimation, until the year of the Jubilee: and he shall give your estimation on that day, as a holy thing to the LORD.

24 In the year of the Jubilee the field shall return to him of whom it was bought, to the one the possession of the land belonged.

25 And all your estimations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall be the shekel.

26 Only the first born of an animal, which should be the LORD’s firstling, shall not be sanctified by any man; whether it is an ox, or a sheep: it is the LORD’s.

27 If it is of an unclean animal, then he shall redeem it according to your estimation, and shall add a fifth part of its value: or if it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your estimation.

28 But no devoted thing that a man shall devote to the LORD of all that he has, both of man and animal, and of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed: every devoted thing is most holy to the LORD.

29 No one devoted to destruction shall be redeemed; but shall surely be put to death.

30 All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’s: it is holy to the LORD.

31 If a man will redeem any of his tithes, he shall add the fifth part of it.

32 And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth shall be holy to the LORD.

33 He shall not search whether it is good or bad, nor shall he change it: and if he changes it at all, then both it and the exchanged shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.”

34 These are the commandments that the LORD commanded Moses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai.

See also: Leviticus 27 in ESV, HCSB, NASB and NIV via Bible Gateway.