What Does Leviticus 27:31 Mean?

And if a man at all wills to buy back any of his tenths, he adds to it its fifth part.

Leviticus 27:31 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And if a man will at all redeem ought of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof.

THE KEY

Here, reclaiming a tithe is allowed, but the return comes with a fifth added: redemption restores possession without erasing its measure.

THE MEANING

This verse makes room for recovery: part of what has been set apart can return to a person’s possession. Yet reclaiming it carries an added fifth, so the return has a measurable cost.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that what is set apart is either forever unreachable or freely reclaimable gives way: this verse allows the return and names its added cost.

THE ROOT

גָּאֹל יִגְאַל

gāʾōl yigʾal

GROWS FROM

ג־א־ל

g-ʾ-l

To redeem or reclaim; in some uses, to recover as a kinsman.

“buy back” in this verse is gāʾōl yigʾal. The repeated form intensifies the act: “if he will at all redeem.” The root can describe reclaiming what has passed out of one’s possession, and here that return carries an added fifth.

ALSO GROWS

go’el: kinsman-redeemer

גֹּאֵל

This branch names one who reclaims what belongs to a relative; it shows redemption as recovery, not merely release from a debt.

ge’ullah: redemption; the right or act of reclaiming

גְּאֻלָּה

This branch makes the recovery itself explicit, illuminating the verse’s permission to reclaim what was set apart.

THE PATTERN

Reclaiming or repairing what is set apart carries an added measure beyond its original value.

But if he at all wills to buy it back, then he adds a fifth part of it to your arranged worth.

Leviticus 27:13 · SDVThe same rule joins reclaiming something dedicated with adding a fifth to its value.

And he makes whole what he has missed from the set-apart thing, and adds its fifth upon it, and gives it to the priest; and the priest makes a covering for him with the ram of the guilt offering, and it is released to him.

Leviticus 5:16 · SDVRepairing harm done to a holy thing also requires an added fifth, so restoration includes more than replacing what was lost.

And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord, I give half of what I have to the emptied, and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I give back fourfold."

Luke 19:8 · SDVThe act of restoring what was taken includes an added measure, extending the pattern beyond the tithe laws.

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.

Leviticus 25:25 · SDV

The same root ⁨ג־א־ל⁩ (g-ʾ-l), “redeem or reclaim,” appears here in the act of a kinsman recovering sold land. That root makes the current verse’s redemption concrete: what was set apart can be reclaimed, with the added fifth marking the terms of its return.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us