What Does Leviticus 27:23 Mean in the King James?
Then the priest shall reckon unto him the worth of thy estimation, even unto the year of the jubile: and he shall give thine estimation in that day, as a holy thing unto the LORD.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Jubilee is built into the valuation from the start: the worth has an appointed boundary, and the payment is set apart.
THE MEANING
A vowed field’s value is calculated only up to the year of Jubilee, so release already limits the reckoning. That value is then given to the LORD as set apart; the measure remains precise, and the dedication remains real.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that setting something apart makes its assessed value limitless: the valuation has an appointed endpoint in Jubilee.
THE ROOT
הָעֶרְכְּךָ
hāʿerkeḵā
GROWS FROM
ערך
ʿ-r-kh
To arrange or set in order; the related noun also means an assessment or value.
The word translated “estimation” comes from a root that also describes arranging things in order. Worth here is not an isolated number: it is measured within an order that has Jubilee as its boundary, then given as set apart.
ALSO GROWS
ʿārakh: Arrange; set in order.
עָרַךְ
The valuation noun draws on this same root, framing worth as something placed within an order.
maʿărākhāh: An ordered array or formation, including a battle line.
מַעֲרָכָה
The same root describes elements placed into a structured formation, giving the estimate a sense of measured placement.
THE PATTERN
A measured term of holding is bounded by release, which restores people and possessions to freedom.
And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,THE THREAD
And he set the bread in order upon it before the LORD; as the LORD had commanded Moses.“Set the bread in order” uses עָרַךְ (ʿārakh), the same root as “estimation” here. The root’s picture of arranging bread before the LORD opens the valuation as a measured placing that becomes set apart.
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