What Does Leviticus 27:5 Mean?
And if it is from five years old to twenty years old, then your arranged worth for the male is twenty shekels, and for the female ten shekels.
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 it be from five years old even unto twenty years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male twenty shekels, and for the female ten shekels.THE KEY
The Hebrew makes this an ordered assessment measured in shekels: “estimation” comes from arranging, and “shekel” from weighing.
THE MEANING
Within a vow, this verse assigns an assessment by age and sex: from five through twenty years old, the male is set at twenty shekels and the female at ten. The difference is explicit, the male figure is twice the female figure, and the amount serves as the chapter’s set valuation for the vow.
THE ROOT
עֶרְכְּךָ
ʿerkekha
GROWS FROM
ערך
To arrange or set in order; from this comes the sense of an ordered assessment or valuation.
“arranged worth” in this verse is ʿerkekha. The valuation is presented as something set by an order, not as an unbounded judgment. The age and sex categories give that assessment its structure.
ALSO GROWS
ʿārakh: To arrange or set in order.
עָרַךְ
The verse places people into defined age and sex categories before assigning the amount.
ʿērekh: Value, assessment, or valuation.
עֵרֶךְ
This is the noun behind “estimation”: the stated figure belongs to a particular assessment.
maʿărākh: An arrangement or array.
מַעֲרָךְ
It echoes the idea of an ordered scheme underlying the verse’s scale.
שְׁקָלִים
sheqalim
GROWS FROM
שקל
To weigh.
“shekels” in this verse is sheqalim. A shekel is rooted in weighing, so the valuation is expressed as a measured quantity. The verse gives that quantity plainly, with different amounts for males and females.
ALSO GROWS
shaqal: To weigh.
שָׁקַל
The root makes the amount a matter of measured weight.
mishqal: Weight or measure.
מִשְׁקָל
It shows how weighing gives rise to a defined quantity.
sheqel: A shekel, a unit of weight used as a monetary amount.
שֶׁקֶל
This is the unit in which the verse states its assessment.
THE PATTERN
When scripture sets a sacred obligation’s value, it names a measured amount and the scale by which it is reckoned.
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.And those from a month old that are to be bought back, you shall buy back by your valuation, for five shekels of silver, by the shekel of the set-apart place, which is twenty gerahs.THE THREAD
And those from a month old that are to be bought back, you shall buy back by your valuation, for five shekels of silver, by the shekel of the set-apart place, which is twenty gerahs.“Estimation” in both verses comes from ערך, the root for arranging or setting in order. Numbers gives a fixed five-shekel valuation for redemption, showing how the same word names an assigned assessment in both passages.
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