What Does Leviticus 27:16 Mean in the King James?

And if a man shall sanctify unto the LORD some part of a field of his possession, then thy estimation shall be according to the seed thereof: an homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver.

Leviticus 27:16 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The field’s worth is read in the life its soil can carry: its seed becomes the measure of what is set apart.

THE MEANING

The verse gives a field dedicated to the LORD a concrete valuation, measured by the barley seed it can take. What is set apart remains materially valuable, and its capacity to bring forth is part of that value.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the idea that dedicating something makes its practical worth disappear: this field is still measured by what it can produce.

THE ROOT

זֶרַע

zeraʿ

GROWS FROM

זרע

To sow or scatter seed.

The same root names seed and the act of sowing, and it also extends to offspring. The field is measured through seed because the measure reaches toward what the land can bring forth, not just the ground it occupies.

ALSO GROWS

zaraʿ: to sow

זָרַע

The field’s valuation is tied to the seed that can be sown in it.

zeraʿ: seed; offspring

זֶרַע

The seed carries the sense of future generation, so the field’s measure points toward its capacity to produce.

יַקְדִּישׁ

yaqdish

GROWS FROM

קדש

To set apart as sacred or belonging to God.

“sanctify” in this verse is yaqdish. The root places the field in a distinct relation to the LORD; it does not make the field cease to be land with a measurable yield. The verse holds dedication and material valuation together.

ALSO GROWS

qodesh: set-apartness; sacredness

קֹדֶשׁ

It names the distinct status given to what is dedicated.

miqdash: sanctuary; set-apart place

מִקְדָּשׁ

Like the field here, a sanctuary is marked out for God while remaining a concrete place.

THE PATTERN

The seed a thing carries points to the life it can bring forth, and that capacity is counted.

While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

Genesis 8:22 · KJVThe earth’s ongoing order is expressed through the recurring cycle of sowing and harvest.

And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.

Mark 4:8 · KJVThe ground’s capacity appears in the measure of the increase that grows from what is sown.

Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;)

2 Corinthians 9:10 · KJVSeed is given, multiplied, and made to yield more, linking what is sown with what comes forth.

THE THREAD

And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

Genesis 1:11 · KJV

The word for seed, ⁨זֶרַע⁩ (zeraʿ), shares the same root ⁨זרע⁩ as the seed in Leviticus. Genesis shows seed carrying the means of further life within itself, opening the field’s valuation as a measure of what its soil can bring forth.

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