Votive Offerings

(Leviticus 27:1 - 27:34)

Jehovah spoke again to Moses and told him to instruct the people of Israel, "If someone makes a votive offering to Jehovah consisting a human being, here are the values set for each kind of individual: 

“A man between the age of 20 and 60 -- 50 shekels of silver (according to the weights used at the Tabernacle)
A woman between the age of 20 and 60 -- 30 shekels
A boy between the age of 5 and 20 -- 20 shekels
A girl between the age of 5 and 20 -- 10 shekels
A boy child between the ages of 1 month and 5 years -- 5 shekels
A girl child between the ages of 1 month and 5 years -- 3 shekels
A man older than 60 years of age -- 15 shekels
A woman older than 60 years of age -- 10 shekels

"If you wish to make a vow, but are too poor to pay the full amount, take the person to the priest, who will figure out a price based on what you can afford.

"If the votive offering is an animal, such an animal, provided that it is an offering acceptable to Jehovah, will be considered holy.  Another cannot be exchanged or substituted for it, neither a better one for a worse one or vice versa, but if one is substituted then both the substitute and the original animal should be considered holy.  If the votive offering is a ritually impure animal, one not acceptable to Jehovah, then it must be brought to the priest, who will determine its value, high or low.  His assessment will be final, and if you want to buy back the animal you must pay the price set by the priest, plus 20 percent.

"If someone dedicates his house to Jehovah as a votive offering, then the priest must assess its value.  Whether high or low, the price set by the priest will be final.  And if the owner wishes to buy it back, he must pay the price set by the priest, plus 20 percent, for the house to belong to him again.

"If someone dedicates a piece of family property as a votive offering, its value will be determined by the amount of seed the land requires for planting, eg. 50 shekels for a homer of barley seed.  If the land is dedicated during the Jubilee Year, that assessment remains.  If field has been dedicated after the Jubilee Year, then the priest must calculate the number of years till the next jubilee and reduce the price accordingly.  If someone who has dedicated the land wants to buy it back, for the field to become his own again he must pay the established price plus 20 percent.  But if the piece of property has not been bought back by the time of the jubilee, or has been sold to someone else, the original owner will no longer be able to redeem it.  When it is released on the Jubilee Year, it will forthwith become of the property of the priests, holy as land dedicated to Jehovah.

"If someone dedicates a piece of property that was purchased and not part of his family's ancestral lands, the priest will calculate its value up to the next Jubilee Year, and at the time of the dedication make the assessed value a sacred donation to Jehovah.  At the time of the Jubilee Year the property must return to the one from whom it was purchased, the one who inherited it as an ancestral land.

"All payments must be assessed in shekels as measured by the weights used at the Tabernacle.  (One shekel is equal to 20 gerahs.)

"You may not dedicate a first-born animal to Jehovah, since first-born cattle, sheep, and goats already belong to him.  However, you may buy back the first-born of any ritually impure animal at the price determined by the priest, plus 20 percent.  If it is not bought back, the priest will then sell it at its assessed value.

"Nothing owned by a person that has been designated as a permanent sacrifice to Jehovah can be bought back or sold, whether it is a person, an animal, or a piece of family land.  Anything dedicated in this way becomes holy and the property of Jehovah.  No person designated as such a sacrifice and marked for destruction can be redeemed; he must be killed.

"All the produce of the land, whether the grain of the fields or the fruits of the trees, is subjected to 10 percent tax that must be paid to Jehovah and becomes his holy property. Anyone who wishes to buy back what he has donated of his harvest must pay its value and an additional 20 percent.  A similar tax of herds and flocks is imposed: every 10th animal should be counted and set aside as the holy property of Jehovah.  You may not pick or choose between good and bad animals or make substitutions.  If a substitution is made, then both animals become holy and may not be redeemed."

These are the commandments that Jehovah on the mountain in Sinai gave to Moses for the Israelites.

Notes
1.  A shekel is equal to about .4 ounces.  An adult man is worth as much as a good tea service, 20 ounces of silver being roughly $400 given the 2014 market price of silver.  A homer is equal to about 300 pounds.

2.  While it is somewhat disturbing to think that Jehovah would put a specific cash value on a human being, it is dismaying to realize how little value an older man or woman has compared to a younger one, worth a third as much or less.  Apparently the wisdom and experience of age didn't count for much when the shekels were counted by the priests.  Also of note is how little value a woman has compared to a man.  That womanly virtues and talents were undervalued is not surprising -- they always have been, but in a society that placed great emphasis on the propagation of its population, one would have thought that a woman, at least one of child-bearing years, would have at least as much value as a man.  One can conclude that the shekel values here itemized are base solely upon the ability to perform manual labor and menial tasks.

3.  A votive offering, unlike the required peace offerings, guilt offerings, etc., is made to Jehovah in fulfillment of a vow.  It is personal in nature, not a public duty.   A man promises Jehovah a goat, if he has a good harvest.  The goat would be the votive offering.  Such is a common practice among believers of all religions, Christianity no less than others.  In medieval times, for instance, a noble warrior would ask for God's help in a battle and, in the event of winning it, promises to donate to the church some precious object.  Similarly, in modern times, a rich man might promise he will fund a new steeple for the church if his prayers are answered and his wife recovers from an illness.  The votive offering is always a bribe to the deity in payment for his favorable intervention in human affairs.  It assumes that the divine being needs to be instructed by mortals in how he should aid mankind and will not do good unless he is rewarded for it. 

4.  It is unclear here what happens to the human being who is given to Jehovah as a votive offering.  Does he become a slave to the priests or a commodity to be sold by them?  It is clear that persons who are given as permanent sacrifices, those that can't be bought back, are to be killed.  Are these criminals?  Are they unwanted slaves, troublesome foreigners, or despised family members?  Or are they, as they most likely were, captives of war?  Are they executed, stoned to death or whatever, or are they sacrificed on the altar, butchered and burned like a sheep or a steer?

5.  Once any kind of votive offering is bought back, Jehovah's law makes sure that the priests make a tidy 20 percent profit on the deal.  Most of Jehovah's statutes are all about the priesthood being needed and honored -- and being able to enrich itself.  Things were hardly different in the medieval Christian church where there was more emphasis on wealth and power than on piety, (although, to be fair, both the Jehovan and the Christian religious establishment did practice charity and provided what we call social services).