John Calvin Commentary Leviticus 27

And the Lord spake unto Moses. In this chapter, Moses shows in what manner and at what price what has once been offered is to be redeemed, if the vows cannot be conveniently paid. Now, it is to be observed that among the ancient people there were two methods of consecration: one by anathema, which the Hebrews call חרם, cherem, and the other for the use of the temple and other religious practices.

The anathema³¹⁷ could be made of unclean animals and other unholy things, as we can see regarding the city of Jericho and similar instances. However, it was not properly permissible to make vows except of a clean person or animal, or something else that could be dedicated to the service of God.

Thus, from their flocks they vowed goats and sheep, and from their herds, oxen or calves, so that they might experience God’s goodness in their fertility. If a person was distressed at being childless, in asking for a child from God, they would offer in their vow their son or daughter; on this basis, Samuel, before he was conceived in the womb, was dedicated to God (1 Samuel 1:22). If anyone had a sickly child born to them, or if one of their children was very ill, or if they themselves were in any difficulty, it was customary to resort to vows, so that God might protect what was dedicated to Him.

Nor can it be doubted that many abused this and fell into foolish practices, but God tolerated these errors as long as they were not opposed to His Law. Moreover, since it often happens that those who are under the obligation of a vow change their minds and are not very eager or ready to pay it—indeed, discharge it with much pain and unwillingness—God permitted what was promised to be redeemed at a certain price, so that their offerings might be voluntary.

By the imposition of this ransom, which was like a fine, rashness was punished, and future thoughtlessness prevented, so that they might consider well what they were doing before they made their vow, and so that it might not be disagreeable to them to stand by their promises. Besides, it should also be noted that these vows were confirmed, not because they were altogether pleasing to God, but to prevent the people from accustoming themselves to impious contempt of Him, if a deceiver could with impunity refuse God what he had promised.

Moses first deals with persons, estimating a male from twenty-five to sixty years of age at fifty shekels of the sanctuary, since this is the prime of life when a man’s work is profitable. He estimates a woman at thirty shekels, since for the most part less profit is derived from a woman than from a man.

Although it might happen that some women would be much more valuable than men—since women are sometimes found to be industrious, prudent, discreet, and strong for labor, while men are idle, dull, lazy, and weak—still, a general law was necessary, because the examination would have been too difficult if each individual were to be valued according to their good qualities. God then does not pay exact attention to the merits of each but is content with the common calculation.

He then lays down rules for an earlier age, namely, from five to twenty, and rates the male at twenty shekels and the female at ten. He afterwards moves to infants, appointing the price of a male from one month to five years at five shekels, and a female at three. Fourthly, he estimates those who are more than sixty: the male at fifteen shekels and the female at ten, since old age weakens the vigor of both mind and body, and gradually destroys it.

In the fifth place, an exception is made to prevent the poor from being burdened beyond their limited means, allowing the priest to reduce the price as much as he saw fit. Still, this reduction also applied to the rich if the person to be redeemed was not worth the ordinary price, although it appears that God here especially provides for the poor in the words, according³¹⁸ to what the hand of him that vowed shall attain. By this clause, Moses³¹⁹ usually expresses poverty or want, because the poor and needy do not have enough to meet their desires.

And when a man shall sanctify his house. A third kind of vow follows, namely, the consecration of houses and lands. Under this heading, an alternative is also appointed, so that religion may not be despised, and yet the rightful possessors should not be driven from their houses, or the lands be rendered useless from lack of cultivation. Those persons vowed their houses who sought from God for themselves and their families that they might inhabit them in health, safety, and general prosperity; and he who wished to obtain fertility for his fields vowed one of ten or twenty acres. Undoubtedly, superstitious prayers were sometimes mixed with this exercise of piety, as if they might acquire favor for themselves by making a bargain with God. Still, since the thing was not wrong in itself, God indulgently bore with the errors which could not be very easily corrected, so that He might not, in His hatred of them, altogether abolish what was useful and praiseworthy. Therefore, the redemption of both house and land was permitted.

But if anyone had committed fraud in selling a piece of land that was vowed, a heavier punishment is added; that is, that he should go without it forever. We shall speak more fully elsewhere of the year of jubilee.³²⁰ For now, it must be observed that, to prevent the partition of land made by Joshua from ever being altered (since God had clearly shown that it was done by His authority), God recalled each of the tribes every fiftieth year to their original share, and thus entirely restored the possessors whom poverty had driven out.

In proportion, then, to the closeness or remoteness of that year, since possession would be so much shorter or longer, land was cheap or dear. God does not here measure the fields by the pole or chain, but estimates them simply, as among simple people, by the seed; namely, if a field in sowing takes a homer³²¹ of barley, it shall remain in the hands of its possessor if he pays fifty shekels of the sanctuary. We have elsewhere seen that these were double the ordinary shekel. But since vows were often made in the middle or towards the end of the jubilee, a distinction is stated; and God commands the priests to take the time into consideration, and the nearer the jubilee year might be, to diminish the price accordingly.

However, where a fraud had taken place, God would not have the honest purchaser ejected; but, when the jubilee was over, He assigned the field, which had been held for a time in sacrilege, to the priests forever. Moses compares this consecration to an anathema, which the Hebrews call חרם, cherem,³²² a word whose radical meaning is destroying or abolishing; for which reason the Latins take a “devoted” thing in a bad sense, as what is destined to final destruction. The law is then extended to lands which had been sold, and which, in the year of jubilee, returned to their former owners, because the first allotment of the land was then wholly restored. For these fields, God commands a price to be paid, upon a calculation of the time, so that only the produce and not the capital value of the land should be taken into account.

Now, since people have improperly and in foolish mimicry imitated the vows which God permitted to the Jews under the Law, so the Pope, in providing for their redemption, has dared in his diabolical arrogance to rival God. The titulus³²³ is well-known in the Third Book of Decretals: “De voto, et ejus redemptione”; in which its compiler, whoever he was, has so sought to impose upon the world with his shameless nonsense as not to hesitate to heap together directly contradictory sentences. And even if there were no contradictions there, still nothing is established except how votive pilgrimages are to be redeemed, which plainly appear from Christ’s declaration (John 4:21) to be wrong since the preaching of the gospel. And assuredly it was an astonishing deception of the devil that what was said under the Law about the payment of vows at Jerusalem should be transferred to Christians, when Christ had pronounced that the time had come when the true worshippers, without distinction of place, should worship God everywhere in spirit and in truth. If the hired wranglers³²⁴ of the Pope object that the same rule applies in the redemption of vows, since a remedy or mitigation must not be denied if any vows should be too burdensome or grievous, I answer that men act wickedly when they seize for themselves what God has reserved for His own judgment. For not even under the Law of old was it permissible for a mortal man to alter a vow, unless by His permission. If again they object that the judgment was given to the priests, here their folly is doubly refuted; since they cannot show that they have been appointed judges, nor can they escape from the accusation of rashness, since without any command they pronounce judgment on this redemption of vows, whereas the priests of old proposed nothing except from God’s mouth, and according to the fixed rule set forth here.

The exception concerning firstlings and tithes sufficiently proves that some vows were illicit and such as God repudiates; and therefore that they must not be made indiscriminately, for it would have been a mere work of supererogation to vow to God what He had already made His own, as we have shown elsewhere,³²⁵ where I have inserted this passage. With respect to what is said of the anathema, it must not be understood generally, since it was not lawful to subject a man to it unless he was worthy of death. This, then, must be restricted to their enemies, whom they were otherwise at liberty to destroy; a notorious example of which was the city of Jericho, with its inhabitants and spoils. Now, since whatever was brought under this anathema was devoted and accursed, God would have it destroyed, nor does He allow for any compensation. Why they anathematized their fields I do not understand, unless perhaps they wished to expiate some crime by which pollution was contracted.

And all the tithe of the land. In these words, God shows that in assigning the tithes to the Levites, He ceded His own rights, because they were a kind of royal revenue. Thus, He prevents all complaint, since otherwise the other tribes might have grumbled about being unjustly burdened. He therefore appoints the priests as His receivers, to collect in His name what could not be refused without impious and sacrilegious fraud.

Regarding the provision that a fifth part should be added to the value when tithes are redeemed by a money payment, the object is not for the Levites to profit from others' losses. Instead, because property owners craftily sought some advantage in this exchange of grain for money, this rule prevents frauds by which the Levites would lose something through such deceptive exchanges. On the same grounds, He commands that the animals, whatever they might be, should be given as tithe and does not permit them to be redeemed by money. This is because, if the choice had been free, no fat or healthy animal would have ever come to the Levites.

Therefore, this law provided a remedy for avarice and stinginess, and with good reason. For if the proverb is true that “good laws spring from evil habits,”²¹⁶ it was necessary that such a covetous and ill-disposed people should be restrained in the path of duty by the greatest severity. And although such careful provision was made for the Levites, there was scarcely any period in which they did not suffer from want, and sometimes they wandered about half-starved. Indeed, after the return from the Babylonian captivity, the memory of so great a blessing did not prevent a part of the tithes from being secretly withheld from them, as God complains in Malachi 3:8. From this, it appears that it was not without purpose that the people were so strictly commanded to pay them.