Leviticus 27:13

27:1-13 Zeal for the service of God disposed the Israelites, on some occasions, to dedicate themselves or their children to the service of the Lord, in his house for life. Some persons who thus dedicated themselves might be employed as assistants; in general they were to be redeemed for a value. It is good to be zealously affected and liberally disposed for the Lord's service; but the matter should be well weighed, and prudence should direct as to what we do; else rash vows and hesitation in doing them will dishonour God, and trouble our own minds.

But if he will at all redeem it,.... The owner of it, or he that has devoted it, if he is determined to have it again at any rate: then he shall add a fifth part thereof unto thy estimation; he shall give the full price for it, as rated by the priest, and for which it might be sold to another man, and a fifth part of the value of it besides; this was done that the full price might be paid for it, the priest not knowing, as it might be, the worth of it so well as the owner; and that the value of consecrated things might be kept to, and to make men careful how and what they devoted, since, though redeemable, they were obliged to pay a large price for them.

13 . thy estimation ] Cp. Leviticus 27:15 , etc. The pronoun constitutes a difficulty, as in Leviticus 27:2 . There Moses, who seems to be referred to, is himself speaking to the people. Here the reference is apparently to the priest in Leviticus 27:12 . In Leviticus 27:23 ‘thy’ cannot have either of these references. The LXX. omits it in all the cases. It is thought to be the insertion of a reviser, in order to harmonize with Leviticus 27:15 , where the subject is similar and the pronoun presents no difficulty as applied to Moses, who is there addressed. But it may possibly, as is suggested by the anomalous grammar in the Heb. of Leviticus 27:23 , be a survival of a phrase from old directions addressed to the priest, and have thus ceased to bear any definite meaning. Leviticus 27:13

9-13. if it be a beast, whereof men bring an offering unto the Lord—a clean beast. After it had been vowed, it could neither be employed in common purposes nor exchanged for an equivalent—it must be sacrificed—or if, through some discovered blemish, it was unsuitable for the altar, it might be sold, and the money applied for the sacred service. If an unclean beast—such as an ass or camel, for instance, had been vowed, it was to be appropriated to the use of the priest at the estimated value, or it might be redeemed by the person vowing on payment of that value, and the additional fine of a fifth more.

(13) But if he will at all redeem it. —Better, and if he wishes to redeem it, that is, the man himself who vowed it for the sanctuary. The estimate put upon the animal in question was intended for anyone who wished to purchase it, not excluding, however, the person who vowed it. He shall add a fifth part.—Whilst anyone else could purchase the animal at the valuation put upon it by the priest, its former owner is to pay a fifth more than the valuation price. This was probably intended as a fine for taking back a thing which he promised to the Lord. For the way in which the fifth part was computed during the second Temple see Leviticus 5:16.

[Reformed Biblical] is. Or white , i.e. or only white, without any mixture of red in it. This clause seems to overthrow that exposition of the Hebrew word adamdam which is given by a learned man, Lev_13:19, because this colour which is here said to be only white , is distinguished from that which is here called adamdam , which therefore must be some other colour than that of snow, which though very light or bright, yet is only white. Leviticus 13:25 Leviticus 13:26 ## Somewhat dark, or, contracted , i.e. not spreading . See Lev_13:6. Leviticus 13:27 Leviticus 13:28 i.e. Arising from the burning mentioned Lev_13:24. Leviticus 13:29 Leviticus 13:30 The leprosy in the body turned the hair white, in the head or beard it turned it yellow. And if a man’s hair was yellow before, this might easily be distinguished from the rest, either by the thinness or smallness of it, which is here noted, or by its peculiar kind of yellow, for there are divers kinds or degrees of the same colour manifestly differing one from another, as in green colours, &c. Leviticus 13:31 ## And that there is no black hair in it; for had that appeared, it had ended the doubt, the black ha ir being a sign of soundness and strength of nature, Lev_13:37, as the yellow hair was a sign of unsoundness. Leviticus 13:32 Leviticus 13:33 ## He shall be shav en, for the more

[Reformed Biblical] s beforehand. ## The plague is here put for the man that hath the plague , as pride is put for a proud man, Jer_50:31, and dreams for the dreamers , Jer_27:9. Leviticus 13:5 ## If the plague be at a stay: this translation is justified by the following clause, which is added to explain it. Otherwise the words are and may be rendered thus, stand or abide in its own colour ; the Hebrew word being used for colour as well as for sight . Leviticus 13:6 ## If the plague be somewhat dark; which is opposed to the white colour of the leprosy. But the word may be rendered, have contracted itself , or, be restrained or confined to its former place and bigness; and thus the opposition seems to be most clear to the spreading of itself, mentioned both in the foregoing verse, and in the following clause. ## He shall wash his clothes, though it was no leprosy, but a scab only; to teach us, that no sin was so small which did not need to be washed by the blood of Christ, which was the thing designed by all these washings. Leviticus 13:7 Leviticus 13:8 Leviticus 13:9 Leviticus 13:10 ## If the rising be white, to wit, with a preternatural and extraordinary whiteness, as Num_12:10. And there be ; or rather, or, the copulative put for the disjunctive, as hath been noted before; for either of these were signs of a leprosy, and one of th

7 . detained before the Lord ] In charge of the priest for some religious purpose such as the fulfilment of a vow, or purification, or on account of suspected leprosy ( Leviticus 13:4 ; Leviticus 13:11 ; Leviticus 13:31 ). His presence in the Tabernacle implies that he was a proselyte. Doeg, an Edomite ] He may have come over to Saul in his wars with Edom ( 1 Samuel 14:47 ). the chiefest of the herdmen , &c.] An important post in a pastoral country. Cp. 1 Chronicles 27:29 ; 1 Chronicles 27:31 . The Sept. reads, “Doeg the Syrian, the keeper of Saul’s mules.” Cp. 1 Chronicles 27:30 . “Syrian” is certainly a mistake for “Edomite,” the consonants of the Heb. words “Aramite” and “Edomite” being almost exactly alike.