What Does Leviticus 27:21 Mean?
But the field, when it goes out in the year of the ram's horn, is set apart to the LORD, as a field sealed away; its holding is the priest's.
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 the field, when it goeth out in the jubile, shall be holy unto the LORD, as a field devoted; the possession thereof shall be the priest’s.THE KEY
Jubilee releases the field from its former holding, but its devotion places it in the priest’s hands.
THE MEANING
When a field has been devoted, Jubilee does not return it to ordinary ownership; it is set apart to the LORD and belongs to the priest. The verse makes the boundary tangible: a thing already handed over has a different destination when the cycle of release arrives.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that every possession returns to its former holder at Jubilee. The field’s prior devotion determines who holds it next.
THE ROOT
הַחֵרֶם
haḥērem
GROWS FROM
חרם
ḥ-r-m
To place under a ban or devote irrevocably.
“sealed away” in this verse is haḥērem. The root carries the force of a thing removed from ordinary use by being devoted. That gives the field’s transfer a lasting consequence: Jubilee arrives, but the devotion has already determined its new holder.
ALSO GROWS
ḥērem: A devoted thing; something placed under the ban.
חֵרֶם
This is the noun used for the field’s devoted status and appears again in the rule about what cannot be sold or redeemed.
yaḥărim: He devotes or places under the ban.
יַחֲרִם
The related verb shows devotion as an act that changes what may be done with a possession.
קֹדֶשׁ
qōdesh
GROWS FROM
קדשׁ
q-d-sh
To set apart as sacred.
The root describes a changed status, not just a religious label. Here the field itself is set apart, and the priest’s possession gives that status a concrete form.
ALSO GROWS
qādōsh: Set apart; sacred.
קָדוֹשׁ
This adjective comes from the same root and describes the status the field receives.
miqdāsh: Sanctuary; a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
The related word for sanctuary shows how the root can name a place marked off for sacred use.
אֲחֻזָּתוֹ
ʾăḥuzzātō
GROWS FROM
אחז
ʾ-ḥ-z
To grasp, take hold, or hold.
The word for possession is built from a root of holding. As ordinary claims fall away at Jubilee, the verse names who now holds this land: the priest.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāḥaz: To grasp or take hold.
אָחַז
This verb supplies the concrete image beneath the priest’s possession: the land is held by him.
ʾăḥuzzāh: A holding or possession, often a landed holding.
אֲחֻזָּה
This related noun makes possession a specific holding of land, rather than an abstract claim.
THE PATTERN
Things set apart for sacred use pass into sacred custody and sustain the work of worship.
Everything devoted in Israel shall be yours.But all the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and iron, are set apart to the LORD. They shall come into the storehouse of the LORD.Do you not know that those who serve the set-apart things eat from the temple, and those who sit beside the altar share with the altar?THE THREAD
But no sealed-away thing, which a man seals away to the LORD from all that he has, of man and beast, and of the field of his holding, is sold or bought back; every sealed-away thing is most set apart to the LORD.The same root, חרם (ḥ-r-m), names the devoted field here and the devoted thing in this rule. This verse makes the Jubilee exception clearer: what has been devoted cannot be sold or redeemed, so its destination remains the priest’s possession.
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