Imamat 27:2-3

27:2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When a man makes a special votive offering ¹  based on the conversion value of persons to the Lord, ²  27:3 the conversion value of the male ³  from twenty years old up to sixty years old ⁴  is fifty shekels by the standard of the sanctuary shekel. ⁵ 

Imamat 27:28-29

Things Permanently Dedicated to the Lord

27:28 “‘Surely anything which a man permanently dedicates to the Lord ⁶  from all that belongs to him, whether from people, animals, or his landed property, must be neither sold nor redeemed; anything permanently dedicated is most holy to the Lord. 27:29 Any human being who is permanently dedicated ⁷  must not be ransomed; such a person must be put to death.

Imamat 27:1

Redemption of Vowed People

27:1 The Lord spoke to Moses:

1 Samuel 1:11

1:11 She made a vow saying, “O Lord of hosts, if you will look with compassion ⁸  on the suffering of your female servant, ⁹  remembering me and not forgetting your servant, and give a male child ¹⁰  to your servant, then I will dedicate him to the Lord all the days of his life. His hair will never be cut.” ¹¹ 

1 Samuel 1:28

1:28 Now I dedicate him to the Lord. From this time on he is dedicated to the Lord.” Then they ¹²  worshiped the Lord there.

1 Samuel 2:18

2:18 Now Samuel was ministering before the Lord. The boy was dressed in a linen ephod.

1 Samuel 14:24

Jonathan Violates Saul’s Oath

14:24 Now the men of Israel were hard pressed that day, for Saul had made the army agree to this oath: “Cursed be the man who eats food before evening! I will get my vengeance on my enemies!” So no one in the army ate anything.

1 Samuel 14:44

14:44 Saul said, “God will punish me severely if Jonathan doesn’t die!” ¹³ 

Mazmur 66:13-14

66:13 I will enter ¹⁴  your temple with burnt sacrifices;

I will fulfill the vows I made to you,

66:14 which my lips uttered

and my mouth spoke when I was in trouble.

[27:2]  ¹ tn Cf. the note on Lev 22:21. Some take this as an expression for fulfilling a vow, “to fulfill a vow” (e.g., HALOT 927-28 s.v. פלא piel and NASB; cf. NRSV “in fulfillment of a vow”) or, alternatively, “to make a vow” or “for making a vow” (HALOT 928 s.v. פלא piel [II פלא]). Perhaps it refers to the making a special vow, from the verb פָלָא (pala’, “to be wonderful; to be remarkable”), cf. Milgrom, Numbers [JPSTC], 44. B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 151 and 193, suggests that this is a special term for “setting aside a votive offering” (related to פָלָה, palah, “to set aside”). In general, the point of the expression seems to be that this sacrifice is a special gift to God that arose out of special circumstances in the life of the worshiper.

[27:2]  ² tn Heb “in your valuation, persons to the Lord,” but “in your valuation” is a frozen form and, therefore, the person (“your”) does not figure into the translation (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 73). Instead of offering a person to the Lord one could redeem that person with the appropriate amount of money delineated in the following verses (see the note on Lev 5:15 above and the explanation in Hartley, 480-81).

[27:3]  ³ tn Heb “your conversion value shall be [for] the male.”

[27:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “from a son of twenty years and until a son of sixty years.”

[27:3]  ⁵ tn See the note on Lev 5:15.

[27:28]  ⁶ tn Heb “Surely, any permanently dedicated [thing] which a man shall permanently dedicate to the Lord.” The Hebrew term חֵרֶם (kherem) refers to things that are devoted permanently to the Lord (see the note on v. 21 above).

[27:29]  ⁷ tn Heb “permanently dedicated from among men.”

[1:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “if looking you look.” The expression can refer, as here, to looking favorably upon another, in this case with compassion.

[1:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “handmaid.” The use of this term (translated two more times in this verse and once each in vv. 16, 17 simply as “servant” for stylistic reasons) is an expression of humility.

[1:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “seed of men.”

[1:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a razor will not go up upon his head.”

[1:28]  ¹² tn Heb “he,” apparently referring to Samuel (but cf. CEV “Elkanah”). A few medieval manuscripts and some ancient versions take the verb as plural (cf. TEV, NLT).

[14:44]  ¹³ tn Heb “So God will do and so he will add, surely you will certainly die, Jonathan.”

[66:13]  ¹⁴ sn Here the psalmist switches to the singular; he speaks as the representative of the nation.