What Does Leviticus 27:18 Mean?
But if he sets apart his field after the year of the ram's horn, then the priest counts out to him the silver according to the years that remain, even to the year of the ram's horn, and it is lessened from your arranged worth.
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
But if he sanctify his field after the jubile, then the priest shall reckon unto him the money according to the years that remain, even unto the year of the jubile, and it shall be abated from thy estimation.THE KEY
Jubilee makes consecrated value time-bound: what is set apart is still measured by how much time remains before release.
THE MEANING
A field set apart after Jubilee is assessed by the years left until the next Jubilee. The priest deducts from its valuation to match that remaining term. Setting the field apart does not suspend its value from the cycle of return.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that setting something apart fixes its value permanently: its assessed worth still changes with the time left before Jubilee.
THE ROOT
וְנִגְרַע
venigraʿ
GROWS FROM
גרע
gāraʿ
To diminish or subtract.
“lessened” in this verse is venigraʿ. The deduction is not a separate penalty; it is a subtraction from the estimate itself. The field remains set apart, while its assessed value decreases according to the time left before release.
ALSO GROWS
tigraʿu: You shall diminish or subtract
תִּגְרְעוּ
Deuteronomy 4:2 uses this form for diminishing nothing from the command; here the same root names a required reduction in valuation.
tigraʿ: You shall diminish or subtract
תִּגְרַע
Deuteronomy 12:32 uses this form for not diminishing from what is commanded, showing the root’s concrete sense of taking away from a measured whole.
יַקְדִּישׁ
yaqdish
GROWS FROM
קדשׁ
qādash
To set apart as sacred.
“sets apart” in this verse is yaqdish. The field is set apart, yet its value remains within the Jubilee cycle. The root holds consecration and separation together without making the field’s material worth timeless.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart
קָדוֹשׁ
This describes the status of something marked as distinct, clarifying what it means for the field to be sanctified.
miqdash: A set-apart place; sanctuary
מִקְדָּשׁ
The sanctuary carries the same root, linking the field’s designation to the wider language of what is reserved as sacred.
הַנֹּתָרֹת
hanotarot
GROWS FROM
יתר
yāthar
To remain over, be left as a remainder.
“remain” in this verse is hanotarot. The years are reckoned as what remains in the cycle, and that remainder shapes the estimate. The root also carries the sense of surplus, making the calculation turn on what is still left before return.
ALSO GROWS
yoter: More; remaining or extra
יוֹתֵר
This form makes the idea of what remains visible in the calculation of years still left.
yitron: Surplus; advantage
יִתְרוֹן
The related noun names what is left over, echoing the verse’s focus on the portion of the Jubilee cycle still available.
THE PATTERN
Where release restores what is held, claims are measured by the remaining interval and lose their hold as return draws near.
According to the abundance of years you shall make its price multiply, and according to the fewness of years you shall make its price shrink, for by the count of harvests he shall sell to you.And you shall set apart the fiftieth year, and proclaim a free flowing through all the land to all who settle in it. It shall be a ram's horn year for you, and you shall turn back each to his holding, and each to his family you shall turn back.The breath of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the emptied. He has sent me to heal the shattered in heart, to herald release to the captives, and the return of sight for the blind, to send the crushed away into release.THE THREAD
You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor shave anything away from it, that you may guard the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.The Hebrew root גרע (gāraʿ, “diminish or subtract”) appears in both verses. Deuteronomy forbids subtraction from the command; here subtraction is the precise measure that brings the field’s valuation into line with the years left.
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