What Does Leviticus 27:6 Mean?
And if it is from a month old to five years old, then your arranged worth for the male is five shekels of silver, and for the female your arranged worth is three shekels of silver.
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 a month old even unto five years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male five shekels of silver, and for the female thy estimation shall be three shekels of silver.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “estimation” comes from a root meaning “arrange,” placing a child’s monetary value within an ordered scale.
THE MEANING
The verse sets an amount according to a child’s age and sex: from one month through five years, the male is assessed at five shekels of silver, the female at three. The person is described here through a fixed monetary estimate, and the two rates are unequal.
THE ROOT
עֶרְכְּךָ
ʿerkecha
GROWS FROM
ערך
ʿ-r-kh
To arrange or set in order; by extension, to assess or assign a value.
“arranged worth” in this verse is ʿerkecha. The word for “estimation” belongs to the same root family as words for arranging and forming an array. Here the amount is part of an ordered scale, with age and sex determining the assigned figure.
ALSO GROWS
ʿārakh: To arrange or set in order.
עָרַךְ
It gives the valuation a sense of placement within a structured scale.
maʿărākāh: An array or arranged formation.
מַעֲרָכָה
This related word makes the root’s ordering sense visible behind the verse’s assigned amounts.
שְׁקָלִים
sheqalim
GROWS FROM
שקל
sh-q-l
To weigh.
“shekels” in this verse is sheqalim. The unit named for weighing makes the valuation concrete: the figures are amounts of silver measured by weight. The verse’s estimate is expressed through something physically weighed.
ALSO GROWS
shāqal: To weigh.
שָׁקַל
This verb is the action preserved in the name of the shekel.
mishqāl: Weight or measure.
מִשְׁקָל
It shows the wider root family’s link between weighing and a measured amount.
THE PATTERN
The verse belongs to a recurring scriptural pattern in which human situations are assigned a stated price in silver.
If the ox gores a manservant or a maidservant, he gives to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox is stoned.And I said to them, If it is good in your eyes, give me my wages; and if not, leave off. And they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.And said to them, What will you give me, and I will hand him over to you? And they set out for him thirty pieces of silver.THE THREAD
But if he is poorer than your arranged worth, then he stands himself before the priest, and the priest sets his worth according to what his hand can reach.The Hebrew root ערך (ʿ-r-kh), meaning “arrange” or “assess,” appears in the estimation here and in the repeated “value” in verse 8. That verse adds an adjustment according to ability, showing the valuation as a measure that can be recalculated.
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