What Does Leviticus 27:3 Mean?
And your arranged worth for the male, from twenty years old to sixty years old, is fifty shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the set-apart place.
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 thy estimation shall be of the male from twenty years old even unto sixty years old, even thy estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary.THE KEY
“Estimation” is an ordered assessment, while “shekel” carries the sense of weighing: the verse makes a person’s vow-value a measured sum under the sanctuary’s standard.
THE MEANING
You meet a person’s vow-value stated as fifty shekels of silver for a male from twenty through sixty. The measure is the sanctuary shekel, so the amount follows a defined standard. The sentence holds a living person and a monetary valuation together without resolving the discomfort between them.
THE ROOT
עֶרְכְּךָ
ʿerkekha
GROWS FROM
עָרַךְ
ʿ-r-kh
Arrange, set in order; from this, assess or value.
“arranged worth” in this verse is ʿerkekha. “Estimation” can sound like a personal opinion, but its Hebrew root carries the sense of setting something in order. The verse presents the valuation as a set assessment, not an unbounded impression.
ALSO GROWS
ʿārakh: To arrange or set in order.
עָרַךְ
This verb makes the ordered quality of the valuation audible beneath the English word.
maʿărākāh: An arrangement or formation.
מַעֲרָכָה
This related word shows the root’s movement from arranging things into a row to establishing a defined valuation.
שֶׁקֶל
sheqel
GROWS FROM
שָׁקַל
sh-q-l
Weigh.
“Shekel” preserves the language of weighing: the stated value is expressed in a unit whose root means to weigh. The sanctuary shekel therefore names the measure used to weigh out the silver amount.
ALSO GROWS
shāqal: To weigh something.
שָׁקַל
This is the verb beneath “shekel,” making the verse’s stated amount a measured weight of silver.
mishqāl: A weight or measure.
מִשְׁקָל
This related form makes explicit that the shekel belongs to a system of measurement.
THE PATTERN
An assessment becomes accountable when it is tied to a stated measure.
This they shall give, everyone who crosses over among those counted, half a shekel by the shekel of the set apart place, twenty gerahs to the shekel; half a shekel shall be the lifted offering for the LORD.Scales of deceit are an abomination to the LORD, but a whole stone is his delight.TEKEL; you are weighed on the scales, and found short.THE THREAD
And Abraham heard and responded to Ephron, and Abraham weighed out to Ephron the silver, which he had spoken in the ears of the sons of Heth, four hundred weights of silver, passing from hand to hand with the merchant.Genesis uses the verb “weighed” alongside “shekels,” showing the weighing sense carried by the word. In Leviticus, that same measure governs the silver amount assigned as a valuation.
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