What does this commandment require?

Leviticus 27:27: if an unclean animal has been consecrated to God, the owner may redeem it by paying the kohen's assessed value plus one-fifth. If it is not redeemed, the kohen sells it at the assessed value. Either way, the dedication is not simply voided.

Why does redemption cost more than the assessed value?

A consistent 20% surcharge appears throughout Leviticus 27 whenever someone reclaims something they themselves dedicated. The extra fifth acknowledges that reversing a dedication is not the same as never having made it — the act of consecration creates a weight that the surcharge makes tangible.

Does this apply to all dedicated objects, or only unclean animals?

The same 20% principle appears for consecrated houses (v. 15), fields (v. 19), and tithes (v. 31) — any dedicated thing the original owner wants to reclaim. Leviticus 27 is a systematic chapter about the cost of changing what has been given to God.

How does Ecclesiastes 5:4 relate to this commandment?

Ecclesiastes 5:4 says it is better not to vow than to vow and not pay. Leviticus 27 agrees in practice: it permits redemption while building a cost into it that makes casual vow-making and casual reversal structurally expensive.

What does Jacob's vow at Bethel illustrate about this commandment's principle?

Jacob vowed at Bethel (Genesis 28:20–22) and did not pay the vow for roughly twenty years. When he finally returned in Genesis 35:1, the vow was still outstanding and still owed — the principle this commandment embeds: a dedication to God does not reduce itself to match the giver's changing convenience.

Commandment #103 · Positive · Temple & Worship

Redeem Dedicated Objects That Cannot Be Offered

פִּדְיוֹן קָדָשִׁים

Source: Leviticus 27:27 · Maimonides, Sefer HaMitzvot, Positive #103

Not everything dedicated to God can reach the altar, and Leviticus 27 carefully regulates what happens when it cannot: you may redeem it — but it costs more than the object's value, because changing what you have given to God is not the same as never having given it.

וְאִם בַּבְּהֵמָה הַטְּמֵאָה וּפָדָה בְעֶרְכְּךָ וְיָסַף חֲמִשִׁיתוֹ עָלָיו וְאִם לֹא יִגָּאֵל וְנִמְכַּר בְּעֶרְכֶּךָ

"And if it be of an unclean beast, then he shall redeem it according to thine estimation, and shall add a fifth part of it thereto: or if it be not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to thy estimation."

Leviticus 27:27 — Open in Torah Reader

A System for the Gift That Cannot Reach the Altar

Leviticus 27 governs a specific and practically important situation: a person has dedicated something to God — an animal, a house, a field, even themselves — and the dedicated thing cannot be offered on the altar because it is unclean or otherwise ineligible. What happens then? The chapter answers with careful, consistent provisions. An unclean animal can be redeemed: the kohen assesses its value, and the owner pays that value plus one-fifth to take it back. Or if it is not redeemed, the kohen sells it at assessed value (Leviticus 27:27). In neither case is the dedication simply voided, as though it had never been made. The transaction of consecrating something creates a weight that does not simply disappear.

The Extra Fifth — Why Redemption Costs More Than the Object

The 20% surcharge appears four times in this chapter, each time someone wants to reclaim something they have consecrated:

וְאִם גָּאֹל יִגְאָלֶנָּה וְיָסַף חֲמִישִׁתוֹ עַל עֶרְכֶּךָ

"But if he will at all redeem it, then he shall add a fifth part thereof unto thy estimation."

Leviticus 27:13 — Open in Torah Reader

The same principle covers a consecrated house (v. 15), a dedicated field (v. 19), and a tithe that has been set aside (v. 31). In every case, the person who wants to reverse their own dedication pays not the object's value but more than its value. The extra fifth is not a fine for bad faith — the chapter assumes ordinary circumstances, not dishonesty. It is an acknowledgment that changing what you have given to God is not the same as never having given it. The weight of the vow does not simply restore itself to zero when you change your mind.

The Weight of a Promise Not Carefully Kept

Ecclesiastes draws the same principle into plain speech: “when thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it… better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay” (Ecclesiastes 5:4). The Torah does not forbid changing a dedication; Leviticus 27 exists precisely to regulate how it is done. But by building a cost into every reversal, it operationalizes exactly what Qoheleth later names: a promise made to God has weight that survives the moment of regret.

Jacob's vow at Bethel illustrates the same reality from the opposite direction. When God appeared to him in a dream, Jacob vowed: “if God will be with me… then the LORD shall be my God… and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee” (Genesis 28:20). He did not pay that vow for twenty years, through his entire time in Laban's house — but it waited for him, and Scripture records it as still outstanding when he finally returned to Bethel in Genesis 35:1. A vow does not expire simply because it becomes inconvenient to honor.

Key Figures

Jacob — Who Made a Vow at Bethel and Waited Twenty Years to Pay It

At the lowest moment of his life — alone, on the run, sleeping on a stone — Jacob made a conditional vow to God. He did not pay it until he was wealthy, settled, and long past the crisis that produced it. The vow waited for him across twenty years, a living demonstration that what is dedicated to God does not simply revert.

Ananias and Sapphira — The Cost of Consecrating Without Completing

When Ananias and Sapphira sold land they had pledged to the community and “kept back part of the price” (Acts 5:2), they encountered the starkest possible version of this commandment's principle: a dedication partially withheld is not a partial dedication. The weight of what was promised does not reduce to match the portion actually given.

Study Questions

For reflection and group study

Leviticus 27 does not forbid changing a dedication — it carefully regulates how it is done. What does it suggest about the Torah's view of vows and promises that it provides an orderly exit while making that exit cost more than the original commitment?

See Lev 27:13,27

The 20% surcharge for redeeming a consecrated object appears four separate times in Leviticus 27. What is communicated by the repetition — the fact that the Torah returns to this principle across every category of dedicated thing?

See Lev 27:13,15,19,27,31

Ecclesiastes says it is better not to vow at all than to vow and not pay. How does Leviticus 27's redemption system work alongside that principle — does it make vow-making easier or harder, and is that the point?

See Lev 27:27; Eccl 5:4–5

Jacob made his vow at Bethel under conditions of crisis and fear, and did not pay it for twenty years. What does it mean that Scripture records the vow and its eventual payment without excusing the delay — as though the promise had simply been waiting, undeterred, through all that time?

See Gen 28:20–22; 35:1–3

Ananias and Sapphira kept back part of what they had consecrated, not all of it — they gave something. What does their story suggest about why partial completion of a dedication is not treated by this principle as partial credit?

See Acts 5:1–5; Lev 27:27

Read this commandment in the original Hebrew.

Open Leviticus 27:27 in Torah Reader

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