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Leviticus 27 · a question people ask

Why were men and women, young and old, valued at different amounts?

In the text

The chapter doesn't say. It gives the values and no reason for them: from twenty to sixty years old, fifty shekels for a male and thirty for a female (27:3-4); from five to twenty, twenty and ten (27:5); from a month to five years, five and three (27:6); from sixty upward, fifteen and ten (27:7). They are "your valuation" when "a man consecrates a person to the LORD in a vow" (27:2). The chapter makes room for someone who is "poorer than your valuation": "The priest shall assign a value according to his ability to pay" (27:8). It doesn't say what the values were based on, and it doesn't call them what a person is worth.

From Favor's study of Leviticus 27

Leviticus 27: Holy to the LORD

Leviticus ends with what is given to the LORD. A person vowed was valued in silver (27:2-8); an animal, house, field or tithe bought back cost a fifth more (27:13, 27:15, 27:19, 27:31). No one could dedicate a firstborn: "It is the LORD’s" (27:26). A devoted thing couldn't be redeemed (27:28), and the tithe was "holy to the LORD" (27:30).

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