Everything Belongs to God

Leviticus 27 closes the book with laws about vows. When someone made a special vow, he could dedicate a person, an animal, a house, or a field to Yahweh. A person was usually redeemed by paying a set amount of silver, with amounts varying by age and sex. These amounts likely reflected the labor a person could provide in that society, not a judgment of human value before God. The poor could be valued according to what they could afford.

Animals fit for sacrifice became holy and could not be exchanged. Unclean animals, houses, and fields could be redeemed by paying the priest's valuation plus a fifth. Fields were valued according to the years remaining until the Jubilee, tying this chapter to chapter 25. Firstborn animals could not be vowed, because they already belonged to God.

The final laws concern the tithe: All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is Yahweh's. As flocks passed under the rod, every tenth animal was holy, whether good or bad, with no swapping. The book ends, These are the commandments which Yahweh commanded Moses for the children of Israel on Mount Sinai. Leviticus begins with God calling from the tent and ends with God's claim on everything His people have. Paul later urges believers to present their bodies as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1), giving all of themselves to God.