What Does Leviticus 27:15 Mean?
And if he who set it apart wills to buy back his house, then he adds the fifth part of the silver of your arranged worth to it, and it is his.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And if he that sanctified it will redeem his house, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be his.THE KEY
What is set apart can still be reclaimed, but the way back carries a fifth more than its assessed worth.
THE MEANING
This verse holds dedication and ownership together: setting your house apart does not make its return impossible. When you reclaim it, its assessed value gains an added fifth, and the house is yours again.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that setting something apart makes it permanently unreachable: the house can be reclaimed, though its return carries a defined cost.
THE ROOT
גָּאַל
ga’al
GROWS FROM
גאל
To reclaim or recover, especially as a kinsman acting to restore what belongs to a relative.
“buy back” in this verse is ga’al. This root reaches beyond paying a price: elsewhere it names a kinsman reclaiming a relative’s property. Here, the house is recoverable, and its return restores a claim rather than creating a new possession.
ALSO GROWS
go’el: Kinsman-redeemer; one who reclaims.
גֹּאֵל
It shows the relational sense carried by the root of “redeem”: recovery can restore what belongs within a claim.
ge’ullah: Redemption or the right of reclaiming.
גְּאֻלָּה
This noun names the recovery itself, linking the house’s return to a broader language of reclaiming what has been lost or sold.
קִדֵּשׁ
qiddesh
GROWS FROM
קדש
To set apart, mark as distinct.
“set it apart” in this verse is qiddesh. The root carries the sense of being set apart, while this verse still leaves a path for the house to return to its owner. The return does not erase the setting apart; it comes through a measured act of reclaiming.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart; distinct.
קָדוֹשׁ
This familiar branch makes the root’s basic sense visible: what is sanctified is marked as distinct.
miqdash: Sanctuary; a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
The sanctuary shares the same root, showing how the act of setting apart and the place set apart belong to one word-family.
וְיָסַף
ve-yasaf
GROWS FROM
יסף
To add, increase, or continue.
“add” in this verse is ve-yasaf. The word makes clear that reclaiming is not a return at the assessed price alone: something is added to it. The added fifth gives the recovery a stated measure.
ALSO GROWS
Yosef: He adds; Joseph’s name echoes this root.
יוֹסֵף
The name shares the root’s sense of addition, revealing the same action inside the verse’s added amount.
tosefet: An addition or supplement.
תּוֹסֶפֶת
This noun keeps the root’s core idea intact: the fifth is an addition to the valuation, not the valuation itself.
THE PATTERN
Scripture makes reclaiming concrete by naming what returns and the measure or cost attached to its return.
And if he who set the field apart wills in any way to buy it back, then he adds the fifth part of the silver of your arranged worth to it, and it stands for him.And I said I would uncover your ear, saying, Buy it before those who settle, and before the elders of my people. If you will buy it back, buy it back. But if you will not buy it back, tell me, that I may know, for there is none beside you to buy it back, and I come after you. And he said, I will buy it back.knowing that you were not loosed with what can be ruined, silver or gold, from your empty walk handed down from your fathers. but with the costly blood of the Anointed One, as of a lamb without blemish and without stain.THE THREAD
If your brother totters and sells some of his holding, and his nearest blood-redeemer comes to him, then he shall buy back what his brother sold.The word translated “redeem” here comes from the same root, גאל (ga’al), used for reclaiming property through kinship. That shared root opens the house’s return as restoration of a claim, with the fifth marking its cost.
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