Leviticus 26 ends with a summary statement, one that can be seen as a summary of the entire book of Leviticus: "These are the statutes and rules and laws that the LORD made between himself and the people of Israel through Moses on Mount Sinai" (v 46).
This would seem to have been a perfectly appropriate way to conclude the book of Leviticus. But Leviticus has one additional chapter, which ends with a second summary statement.
Leviticus 27 deals with gifts promised to the tabernacle or temple. Sometimes the promises were made in prayers, where a person promised a certain thing if God answered a particular prayer.
One famous example is the promise Hannah made when she prayed for a son: "And she vowed a vow and said, 'O LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of my life, and no razor shall touch his head" (1 Sam 1:11).
Hannah, we know, kept her promise, and Samuel served God from the time he was a young boy.
People also might promise gifts as a spontaneous expression of thanksgiving or love of God. Several psalms speak of people publicly praising God by carrying out a vow (Ps 22, 50, 56, 61, 65, 66,76, 116).
Sometimes the details of a vow would have to be changed. Suppose that a man had vowed his services to the tabernacle, but the tabernacle did not need his help. Then the man could give a donation instead, with the amount depending upon his age (Lev 27:1-8). The amounts listed in Lev 27 seem to depend on the value of the manual labor that people in those age groups could contribute, taking into account also the fact that women might have family responsibilities that could limit the amount of time they could work at the tabernacle.
If someone donated a house, land, or other asset and then found he couldn't afford the gift, he could buy it back with a 20% penalty. The precepts in Lev 27 give incentives for people to keep their word and not make these kinds of promises lightly. Nothing in the Bible encourages anyone to make a vow.
At the end of Israel's 40 years in the wilderness, Moses would say, "If you make a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the LORD your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin. But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin. You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the LORD your God what you have promised with your mouth" (Deut 23:21-23).
Some of the provisions in Lev 27 relate to the year of Jubilee, which is a reason why they appear after the Jubilee is introduced in Lev 25.
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