Parashat B'Chuqothai

(Leviticus 26:3 - 27:34)

If: when we do our part, which shows Him we are serious about the relationship (v. 9), He will do His part. Statutes: Heb., chuqoth-- laws governing all creation, spiritual as well as physical, such as the feasts that coincide with the natural seasons. [Asher Eder]. The ideal is that hearing the commands will make us want to carry them out, and when one reads the next few verses, who would not want to obey an Elohim like this? Walk in them: not simply do them, but become them--let them bringing change so we can become more and more like Yahshua, who embodied them. Doing is to lead to observing (learning from) His commands, which leads us to His heart--the Spirit of the letter--which in turn makes us want to carry them out even more fully, which is not accomplished until all of Israel is living them. So once we start obeying, we need to teach others to do the same too. Yahshua said that as we seek first YHWH’s Kingdom, our other needs would be met as well, since YHWH knows what they are. Make them our concern, and the other things will not be a worry, as the next few verses show. We will not need elaborate schemes to prop up securities that cannot support their own weight. Then we will have more time and energy to “beautify” His commands. We need to give Him room to prove these promises true by keeping everything else secondary; if we look elsewhere for our security, how will we know when it comes from Him? As we walk in His cycles, our truest needs will become apparent, and what is in season on His calendar is what we need most at that time. At Passover, our greatest need is liberation, and that is what He teaches then. At Yom Kippur, it is a covering over our sins that we need most. He gives what we need when we need it:

In season: Rain out of season could wash away crops or topsoil, or make already-harvested grain rot. There are many proverbs about how irritating something that comes in the wrong season is, and in this case it could be a matter of life or death. Though we may not want rain on a particular day since we have other plans, if we do not receive it at the right time, the crops will not grow as they should. Water is a symbol of the teaching of the Torah, which is best learned "in season"--at the times when the feasts are to be celebrated. Trees are symbolic of people as well; their fruit, watered by Torah through the festivals, is a lifestyle that produces righteousness. He knows when we need the adversity that best brings that about. If the rain is in season, and we are not, we will also fail to bear fruit. The Counting of the Omer, between Passover and Shavuot, is the time to take stock of who we are meant to be so that we can bear the most fruit. In other seasons, the things He gives us to do are the “rain” that will bring the fruit we need in each season.

Last until: or "overtake". The harvest would be so abundant that you would still be harvesting one crop when the next was ready, as in the Garden of Eden when there were no seasons, only a perfectly-balanced climate and environment. But until "that day" when everyone sits under his own vine and his own fig tree, the seasons are signs for us that point the way there. Constant involvement with the land will enable us to see the pictures of what He wants our lives to be, and this leads to the kind of security that He wants as opposed to the type sought by men who build the tower that gives them the illusion of being in control.

Relax: Aramaic, "dwell undisturbed". It would be a mixed blessing to have plenty but always have someone trying to steal it. We who have lived in a land with few major security threats have much less of a feel for how wonderful this would sound to a nation used to ruthless marauding bands where there was no international court of appeal and there were dangers on every side. Harmful beasts can also metaphorically include evil spirits, especially when we read about the patterns of "seven more" below in light of Yahshua's statement that an ousted evil spirit will try to bring back seven more spirits if the right measures are not taken. (Mat. 12:45)

If the enemies with swords even try to enter, they will be scared off if you simply "flex your muscles". Rashi says this means they will each fall by one another’s swords before they even get to us.

Note that the proportions of what is accomplished are not the same in each equation. The rabbis have deduced that this means that if many of us are working together, what is accomplished will increase exponentially over when only a few of us are involved.

Turn My face: Aram., "turn with My Memra [living Word]..." (that is, Yahshua). Establish: or confirm; i.e., re-establish. Yahshua indeed re-established the covenant (Mat. 5:17; Luke 22:20) and will bring all of this about in a fuller way when His Kingdom is fully present in physical form.

Long-lasting provisions: Aramaic, "old grain", remaining from the last harvest. We can both be sustained by the ancient revelations which we kept locked away for so long through our own erroneous thinking, and are only now rediscovering, and also partake of the spirit behind the letter--the "new treasures" as well (Mat. 13:52), though we must partake of the old before we can receive those, for we must make room for them. Our bread must be made according to the recipe of our righteous ancestors, for it is the necessary foundation for the new. Before we can experience the greater exodus of Yirmeyahu 16:14, we must return to the memorial of the ancient exodus that YHWH has prescribed. What more could we ask for? This is like a dream--the best one could ever hope for in a world where there are still enemies. Yet there is more...

This is the greatest blessing, the goal of all of the commands, because they let us begin to think in the patterns by which He thinks, and to know His mind. Physical security is nothing if we are not of one mind--if we do not also form a community He can come to dwell amidst. This would be the Kingdom itself, were it accepted. If we walk in His ways (v. 3), He will walk among us..

Walk among you: This hearkens back to the Garden of Eden! A nation that did obey Him and thus come to know Him intimately would be an oasis of peace, freedom, and joy in the desert of the "normal" patterns of this fallen age.

He accomplished this for us; He can certainly bring about the other miracles described above. From being: or, "so that you will no longer be". Walk upright: with your head held high. (Rashi) An ox-yoke consisted of a bar placed over the neck and reins under the neck held firmly in place by pegs that anchored the reins tightly into two holes at each end of the bar. Pictures in Egyptian tombs show the slaves who built them actually wearing oxen-yokes to carry their load, because this helped them balance it well.

15. "‘and if you reject My statues and your soul abhors My ordinances, so that you will not carry out all of My commandments, so that you annul My covenant,

Annul: or "break"; Aramaic, "alter". This is what we have done more frequently.

Sudden terror: unexpected attacks that will cause us to panic; LXX, “perplexity”. This is the opposite of confidence in YHWH. Wasting lung disease: LXX, "the itch" (or scab). Consume away: Aramaic, "obscure the vision of". When we want to look at ourselves, we cannot see anything else. (Ex. 10:23) Cause the soul to pine away: i.e., it will be a life of constant depression. If we could not handle the simplicity of pressure from one source only, the consequence is pressure from many different sources. The panic seen here is the opposite of the confidence seen above. This seed can also refer to our children, for the Gentile ideas to which we turn them over will end up consuming the best of their energy for profitless purposes.

Struck down: Aramaic, "shattered". Part of the curse is to be terrified of things that do not even exist; it is the logical conclusion of such a state of mind.

After: Aramaic, "in spite of". Listen: i.e., obey. Still: His intent in all of this is to make life outside of the covenant as hard as it can be so there will be motivation for stubborn people to come back into the valuable things they once had. The same pattern is seen in the plagues in Egypt and in the book of Revelation where over and over it is said, "Still they refused to repent!" If we refuse to be taught by His punishment, we will wish we had done so, since He said He would bring it again either in seven ways or seven more times. These are penalties for failing to come through with our side of the covenant, of even for late payment. If you think the credit card companies charge high late fees, try 700%! If we remain in rebellion, we eventually dig ourselves into a hole too deep to get out of. This is why it has taken until our day for the exile of the Northern Kingdom to near its end. Angus Wootten calculates from 734 B.C., when the majority of the Northern Kingdom became vassal to Assyria, Y’hezq’El/Ezekiel (4:4-5) was told to lie on one side for 390 days for the number of years YHWH would punish Israel, and the other side for 40 days for Judah's years. In Jeremiah 16 YHWH doubled Ephraim's sentence (to 780 years), but here it also says that if our ancestors would not repent, He would increase their punishment seven times (to 2,730 years). So there are two sentences running concurrently for Ephraim. The first ran out in 46 C.E., right when Paul began his missions to the “Gentiles”—whom he searched for in the synagogues! Individuals from Ephraim began responding to Yahshua, and Hosea's judgment of "no pity" was no longer in effect. But Hosea's other sentence--that of not being a people--was not up... until right around 1996! If we begin counting from 722 B.C., when the capital city of Samaria was finally destroyed, we come out to 2008. That 12-year interval may have been like a transitional “decompression chamber” to get us ready for the real thing. Now that it is time for the second door to open, YHWH is raising the standards so we can be used to them before entering the Land and therefore be able to stay this time. We have reached the end of our mandatory exile; from now on, any unnecessary delay is our own fault. The curse is lifting and Efrayim is realizing again that he is to be not just a group of redeemed individuals, but the corporate people of YHWH. But it is not automatic. (See note on verse 24.)

Iron and brass: symbols of stubbornness (Isaiah/Yesh. 48:4; Jer./Yirm. 6:28); they would not yield rain or crops. But even if we were not farmers, this could mean that YHWH would not hear our prayers. He leaves no way out if we will not straighten up. He has stopped using positive reinforcement. It is up to us whether these things will come upon us.

Everything you have worked for will be lost.

Walk casually: LXX, "perversely", but the Hebrew term comes from a word meaning "a chance encounter" (as seen in Deut. 28:17-18, the philosophy of Amaleq). It is as if to say all of YHWH’s mighty acts on our behalf were just coincidences, part of the normal ebb and flow of life on earth, and things would eventually have improved regardless. Or it can mean being indifferent to YHWH (Targum Yonathan), becoming overconfident in our dealings with Him (Ibn Ezra), considering it a burden to walk with Him (Rashi), or to in any sense trivialize who He is.

Desolate: because it is unsafe to walk on them any longer. He is removing everything that competed with Him for our affections and priorities.

Corrected: instructed, chastised. In opposition to Me: in one sense, when we kept Sunday as "sabbath", YHWH stayed home. Was the spirit that was meeting with us really His? In another way, yes, He met us where we were, but we must realize that where we were was not acceptable to Him, and move on from there.

If we still think we can get along without Him (in short, become secularized), He will ignore us too, and see where that leads. His leaving us alone is the worst thing to fear. Seven more times: We have completed the former sentence of "seven times"—2,730 years. (Based on the 390 years sentenced in Y’hezq’El 4.) Now we are at another crossroads; what will we do with this open door? If we do not respond rightly this time, we are in for another 19,110 years of this treatment—or 133,770 years if our descendants do not get it right at that time! This may be why Yehudah’s sentence, which Y’hezq’El said was only 40 years, lasted as long as it did. This may also relate to the plagues in Revelation that come in sevens, His final attempt to get some recalcitrants of the House of Yoseyf to recognize who they really are, stop sitting on the fence, and repent.

Gathered together: to escape the armies outside the walls. But it will be "out of the frying pan, into the fire"--a worse thing will await them in the place of supposed safety, because there is no hiding from YHWH. Pestilence: Based on the word for "talk" or "declare", so it may imply the "plague" of an informer who gives away the secret to how to enter the city.

Ten women…one oven: i.e., there will not be a need for many ovens, because there will be so little to bake.

28. "‘Then I will walk in furious opposition to you; I Myself will also discipline you seven [times] for your sins,

Furious: or boiling. I.e., worse than ignoring us, He will now be “indifferent to us with a vengeance”, leaving us to the ways of Amaleq (the fury of chance), since we chose that path.

All of these—even this--took place when Israel’s cities were under siege by their enemies. (e.g., 2 Kings 6:28-29) YHWH was not exaggerating. The devil did not do all of this to Israel; it was YHWH’s judgment--a sober warning to us as we re-enter His covenant.

We did not do this ourselves, and over and over the book of 2 Kings says that our kings refused to remove these worship-platforms, so YHWH Himself had to step in. Corpses...monuments: both the same word in Hebrew, in an interesting play on words. Both refer to a lifeless body or form.

32. "‘And I will bring the land to [such] desolation [that] your enemies who settle there shall be appalled at it.

Appalled: or horrified. One example of this may be the lions that attacked those the Assyrians brought in to replace the Northern Kingdom. (2 Kings 17:25) Indeed, until His people began to return, it had become scarcely more than desert in some areas and malaria-infested swamp in others, in which Mark Twain said even a chicken could not scratch out a living.

Scatter: the word also means "sow"; Hoshea brings out both meanings by naming his son "Yizra'el"--Elohim will scatter, or Elohim will sow. (Hos. 1:4-11) A sowed harvest will later be reaped, and that was the blessing within the curse. By Yahshua's time, the fields were "white unto harvest". Devastated: or, a desert. Ruins: Go there today and you will see many such cities, albethey an archaeologist’s dream, but they are being reestablished and resettled (cf. Isaiah 61:4).

Enjoy: or be paid back, be appeased for. This is one more symptom of our disobedience, but very important to YHWH. From the beginning of the United Kingdom, for 490 years the people did not obey the command about leaving the land fallow in the Sabbatical year. The Babylonian captivity ended after exactly 70 years, fulfilling YHWH's promise to the day. (Yirm. 25:11-12; 2 Chron. 36:21)

36. "‘And as for those who are left alive of you, I will send timidity into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, and the sound of a leaf driven [by the wind] will send them running, and they will disappear as if running from a sword, and they will fall [on their faces] when no one is chasing them.

The sound of a leaf: Yet the word for “leaf” is from a root word meaning to ascend, and this is the underlying purpose in His sending the wind (the same as spirit in Hebrew). He shakes up our path to see if we are willing to turn back to Him.

This proved the case despite the great riches of Jews in Germany and the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

What could be a better description of the Holocaust? But these promises must also have been fulfilled in many other ways for the Northern Kingdom, who left the covenant first. To treat His ways as common is to descend—and our ancestors tumbled down the steps. We defile the Land when we descend, and we descend when we defile the Land. So again He defends the honor of His Land, which does not consume its inhabitants, by not bringing this on us while still in His Land. His Land is a place of protection, so when it is time for His hand to be heavy, He removes us from it first.

Rot away: putrefy, pine away; Aramaic, "wither away". With all the promises made if one would obey, these “ifs” are YHWH’s mercy. He gives us the option of obeying instead; He is not looking for an excuse to push us down the steps. He wants us on the top, but we must get there on His terms. We were meant to sit up abruptly and ask where we have gone wrong if ANY of these things came upon us. If we as a people are running from our enemies, we are on the descending path, and each of these is designed to get our attention. The Torah is all about relationship with Him, and these things are not punishment but chastisement--a means of keeping us from going further away when you have exhausted all the better reasons to come back. The roadblocks get tougher and tougher, because after the 49th step there is no more covenant (cf. Heb. 10:26), and that is where they are heading (v. 15). After that, someone has to die for the covenant to remain in effect--and that is exactly what did take place. But it is better to die and be unable to go further into sin than to go that far.

But if they: LXX, "And they shall..." Admit to: literally, "throw up their hands for"; Aramaic, "confess". Guilt of their ancestors...treachery: or treason--betrayal of one's NATION. Yirmeyahu 16 clarifies that this means admitting that our fathers inherited lies. Half-truths, in some cases, but still not true. The key to our returning is that we right their wrongs rather than continuing to let their effects continue. And also that they: Not just our ancestors; when we say, “Our fathers have inherited lies” we must add, “We have, too.” Walked in hostility: Aramaic, "acted stubbornly"—i.e., were interested only in doing things their own way.

If their...heart should...: Aramaic, "Only then will their foolish heart break down..." Accept the punishment for: or "pay for”, “satisfy the debt for". I.e., do more than just recognize that the punishment is just; more appropriately, repair what was broken! Yahshua made the big down-payment, but we have more payments to make to complete what he began. The term also means “to delight in”, i.e., be glad that He caught us and that He still cares enough for us to bring us back through whatever harsh measures might be necessary to get our attention. This proves He still has hope for us.

All of these covenants were the same one in essence, with some further detail or focus added upon each renewal. Note that he lists them backwards, just as we are moving back to our roots. We can pick up where our ancestors left off, and be to YHWH what each of the patriarchs was. We can come back up the steps very quickly if we confess that we were crooked and that He was not with us when we were walking the wrong way. He may have made room for us to repent, but He was still against us, though He was not as heavy-handed as He could have been, because He wanted a remnant to survive. When we make restitution for what our ancestors did wrong, His hostility disappears instantly.

Despised My ordinances: Compare Hoshea 8:12, where the House of Efrayim counted His Torah "a strange thing". Still many “believers” cringe at any mention of the “Law”, and this is how Yahshua judges who will be counted greatest and least in His Kingdom. (Mat. 5:19)

He sent Yahshua after the sentence was doubled (Yirmeyahu 16:18), so there was at least mercy again, though it took five more cycles before He was ready to allow us to be His people again. (Hoshea 1) But now we are at the point of “after all this”, and yet most are still outside His Land. This chapter has been a legal document—a wedding contract with divorce clauses too. It has specific time frames, and we are precisely at the termination point for the period of separation, so we are perfectly poised to ascend again, if we will just walk through the gate that is now again open! We must circumcise our hearts and get rid of the worthless things that are like a foreskin on us (v. 1) by dying to self; then He can again welcome us in the door:

Ancestors: again, the covenant was renewed with the specific focus being on returning to the Land. But it is not only for the patriarchs’ sakes; He will want to do it all for us as well once He sees us acting like they did. He has opened the contract back up, and is looking for people who will uphold it to sign on to it again.

CHAPTER 27

2. "Speak to the descendants of Israel, and tell them, ‘When a man makes an extraordinary vow, by your valuation the souls shall belong to YHWH:

Extraordinary vow: This is a very unfamiliar concept today. It has to do with vowing a person, whether oneself or another, to YHWH—turning him or her over for a special purpose, but not physically. After all, this would become an undue burden on the priesthood if all of these were, like Shmu’el, actually turned over to the custody of the Temple. They could not be fed from the altar. Rather, one paid the silver at which the person is valued instead, and retained responsibility for the person himself. Yet the person was still “wonderfully distinguished” (another way of translating this word for “extraordinary”). Putting a value on one’s soul is a foreign concept to most today, but here it is in YHWH’s Torah. It is a statement of how important YHWH is, and is honors the person thus vowed. It says he is somehow worth setting apart to YHWH. There are different ways to understand this. One is simply that one dedicates his child to YHWH at birth. Or, a very faithful slave might do something very great and his master would “pay YHWH” for it. One cannot vow what does not belong to him. One could not vow someone else’s children.

Though the modern sheqel is a currency, and it did eventually turn out that way in ancient times, it was chiefly a unit of the measure of weight. Some estimate this sheqel as 0.8 ounces, others as 10 grams (0.35 ounces). There were different types of sheqels, which is why the “sheqel of the sanctuary” is specified. In 1,800 B.C.E. it was recorded that a sheqel was worth the equivalent of one bushel of grain. The vow is not vague or haphazard, but for a purpose. An appraisal is conducted. But if the values are already listed for a person in each category, how is it that they are being evaluated? Couldn’t the priest just “look at the chart”? The fact that the values have already been given suggests that the evaluation means more than just finding the value. The Hebrew term comes from a word meaning “to arrange in order” or “set in battle array” like the lamps of the menorah in chapter 24. It has to do with putting us in YHWH’s army, preparing us for battle. In fact, the people in this first category are those who are eligible to go to war, with those from fifty to sixty years old being the ones who train the younger men for war. One is saying, “May this person’s soul be put in the place where it is worth most.” If he is not, his full value might not be realized. Being counted among Israel gives us our value, but one is not as valuable as he should be if he is not in the right position. Generals are worth more than privates, for there are far fewer of them. YHWH calls Himself “YHWH Tzva’oth”—the commander-in-chief of armies. Elsewhere, we see that each one is worth a half sheqel (Ex. 30:13), yet here some are worth 50, 30, 15, etc. So something different is being counted there. When it comes to our relationships with one another, we never know who else will make us a complete sheqel, so we all need each other. Everyone remains equal in value, for even the laziest, most rotten Israelite can bring us to completeness, whether it is by his willingness to pull us out of a ditch or simply by our realizing through seeing him that we never want to turn out the same way, which motivates us to improve ourselves. But these are added values in another realm—that of our relationship to YHWH Himself. A half sheqel is a lot in itself, but when our actions are done not just for the community but for Him specifically, our values start to multiply. During the Counting of the Omer from Passover to Shavuoth, we especially take stock of what we are worth in the service of YHWH. We need to :weigh ourselves out” to determine if we are profitable to Him. (Compare Mat. 25:14ff.) These men worth fifty sheqels are therefore worth 100 souls. They should be able to take responsibility for 100—which is really also an idiom also for “countless”. Just consider how many a soldier is protecting while he is in battle. Twenty is the age at which one becomes responsible for his actions to the fullest extent.

The head of the household is valued more highly, but the woman actually runs the household day to day. The service of a woman this age is to produce faithful children who continue in His path. One’s value can be increased by adopting others, even if one’s own children are few or forsake YHWH. Thirty sheqels is also the price for which Yahshua’s life was sold, and he was evaluated by the chief priest (Mat. 26:14). A field (representing the whole world) was also purchased with it! The fact that it is the price of a woman hints that it was a bride price, and this stands to reason since his bride was the one needing to be paid for, not he, so he could have subjects to rule over.

This is the age of potential, so it is not valued as highly as those who are actually doing the work, but it is valuable still, because aptitudes are being developed now that the “recruiter” will be looking for. If we raise the children’s value now, they will be worth much more later. Twenty sheqels is the price Yoseyf’s brothers sold him for when he was seventeen years old (in this age range). They unwittingly gave him to YHWH. He might not have offered himself to be a slave, but YHWH knew it needed to be done so that many lives could be saved. So when he gave their silver back, saying, “I already received your silver”, he may have been recognizing that this is what they had really been doing.

These children are the raw materials, so they are not worth much yet in terms of ability to serve. But one’s traits are usually determined by the time he is three years old. If he is loved and taught properly at this stage, he can become very valuable to YHWH. Five sheqels is the same as the price to redeem a firstborn son. (Num. 3:47; 18:15) A month: Possibly a practical measure because of infant mortality, which would usually become evident by the time he was a month old, and one would not wish to vow a child before he knew how able he was to survive. Children were not usually named immediately in ancient Israel. But there is another reason: Just as a son must experience one Sabbath before he is circumcised, the child to be vowed must experience one new moon (renewing) before being turned over to YHWH. But otherwise, the sooner we set our children apart unto YHWH and support them in that, the less it costs us. If the child is raised in Torah from earliest days, there is not even a sense of giving anything up to follow YHWH, because this is all he knows. As the kingdom draws nearer, we have less time to wait, but neither does anyone have to “wait for the car to be built” before he can go to the store, because there has already been a generation of restoration and the vanguard has cleared the path of briers. Rather than having less sense of gratefulness than those who had to work hardest, latecomers should use their ability to stand on our shoulders to add to everyone’s progress, because none of us has yet made it to the mountaintop.

If one waits until he is old to be set in order, like a field sold not long before the yovel, he has fewer cycles left to be useful, but is counted as more valuable than a child, who has many left, probably because of their knowledge and experience. Our fruitfulness depends on surrendering to YHWH’s cycles—His mandatory appointments. He even makes distinctions between brothers, whose genetic makeup is otherwise the same, because one responds better to His commands.

Poor: The term means one who has had his treasures taken from him, and this perfectly describes Israel of both houses. So we need to be stood before the priest so we can be set in order again with the tool of the Torah. Even if we have been worthless up to this point, we can still become valuable to YHWH. Ability to pay: literally, according to the mouth of the reach of his hand. In Hebrew, too, our actions do indeed speak louder than our words! They tell our real story and define who we really are. It is best not to make promises one cannot keep, but YHWH knew there would be moments of euphoria when great intentions well up within us, though indeed one “cannot get blood from a turnip”. But YHWH does not say, “Just don’t worry about it.” The priests may be able to locate resources one is overlooking. Moshe did not recognize the potential that was in the rod in his hand until YHWH showed it to him. (Ex. 4:1ff) As he reached for the tail of the snake that had initially made him fearful, it became the symbol of his authority. The priest judges not just by what we can reach, but how far we are willing to reach. If we do nothing while the doors are wide open, YHWH will find us worthless like the servant who hid his talents. Reach higher! The words “hand” and “garment” both have the same numerical value in Hebrew, which is fitting, since both are pictures of our works.

10. "‘he may not replace it or exchange it, a healthy [one] for a bad, or a bad [one] for a healthy. But if he shall exchange any one at all, then [both] it and the one substituted shall be holy.

If this applies to possessions, how much more to our lives? “You are not your own; you have been bought with a price. Therefore glorify YHWH with your body and your spirit, which are YHWH’s.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) If we try to take our lives back for selfish use, what could we ever give Him in exchange? “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul, and what could a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mat. 16:26) Yahshua was clearly referring to this passage when he said that.

Unclean beast: such as a donkey, which can be redeemed. Israelites would own few other unclean beasts.

How can an unclean beast be consecrated to YHWH? The idea behind these verses seems to be that someone made a vow to YHWH along the lines of, "Get me out of this situation, and I will give you..." Sometimes the vow is rash and he actually needs the use of the thing he vowed to give, so he can pay a certain amount of money to have it back, but he has to pay a 20% fine (v. 13, etc.) for again profaning something that was made holy. There are exceptions; some things cannot be used in the Temple, and some things can never be bought back (v. 10), because they are too holy.

YHWH makes sure it is not worth our while to keep something that we had previously wanted to give Him. There is a price to pay for profaning it again. It is degraded.

That is what it will be: Aramaic, "so shall it stand".

16. "‘And if a man consecrates to YHWH [part] of a field from his ancestral heritage, then you shall value it according to the [amount of] seed [growing] in it: a chomer shall be valued at fifty silver sheqels.

Chomer: 100 omers. (Modern equivalent: 220 liters or 58 gallons/7.96 cubic feet.) From this valuation we derive the fact that an omer (which symbolizes one person) is worth half a sheqel (each person's temple tax, as in Exodus 30:13ff.) A chomer is not a measure of land areas as such, but this is referring to the area that requires a chomer of barley seed to plant. The Talmud tells us that one se’ah (of which there are 30 in a chomerr) could plant 2,500 square cubits--an area half the size of the Tabernacle enclosure. From this we can calculate that a chomer could plant 75,000 square feet on average (a square 274 cubits on each side). This would be the equivalent of 3.87 acres. It has the same value of a human male. (v. 3) If the land was of poorer quality, one would have to donate more acreage to achieve the same yield.

18. "‘But if he consecrates his field after the yovel [year], then the cohen shall calculate for him the price according to the years that remain until the yovel year, and it shall be deducted [pro-rated] from your valuation.

19. "‘And if the one who consecrated the field ever wants to redeem any of it, then he shall add one-fifth to the price of your estimation, and it will be confirmed to [be] his.

Confirmed: possibly by checking the records of property ownership. By the Second Temple, priests did own fields beyond those attached to their cities, and these used for certain purposes like watching the barley to know when it was in the stage that allowed the Passover to be proclaimed, etc.

It can keep giving to the priests after the donor dies. Rashi says the second “he” here refers to the Temple treasurer.

Devoted: The Arabic word harem comes from the same root--meaning something off limits to everyone else. The cohen does not receive the actual ownership of the field until the yovel, but the value of its produce is what is paid to him in the meantime. The field is a picture of the world. (Mat. 13:33) The more we turn over to YHWH of what we own in the world, the more property belongs to the Kingdom. If we just leave it there and keep our hands off it, it is no longer our problem; the priest will determine how it is used, and we do not have to worry about getting all we expected out of it. Eating from the field is part of the curse! (Gen. 3:18) It is associated with the sweat of the brow. A garden, in contrast, serves us and brings us peace. If our stake is not in the community of Israel, all we have is the world. Adam and Chawwah did not eat bread in Eden; they were the bread! They did not eat the picture; they ate only fruit. We now need the reminder in the tithes and laws of gleaning to suspend our selfishness. We should be eating of His garden, but He cannot plant it if we keep holding onto our own fields. Just because man rejected His garden does not mean He is not still caring for it, and He is very protective of it, removing what He knows are weeds, even when they look like wildflowers to us. He knows weeds will choke out the tender, and are therefore a threat to the fruitfulness of the plants that do belong there. (Mat. 13:22)

These could not be sold permanently, but had to be returned to the clan that owned them at least once every fifty years.

24. "‘In the year of the yovel, the field shall return [revert] to him from whom it was bought, to whom it had belonged as an inherited possession.

25. "‘Now all your value-estimations shall be according to the sheqel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall [equal] the sheqel.

No unequal weights or measures are allowed. (Ex. 30:13) Anything we weight out—every decision that hangs in the balance—must be based on the measure of its value to YHWH’s dwelling place: Does it bring us closer to Him?

The same holds true for a firstborn of human beings. They already belong to YHWH anyway. We cannot give what is not ours to give; we can only turn them over to those to whom they belong. However, He took the Levites in exchange for all the firstborn (Numbers 3:12) with the payment of five sheqels. Thus, after the five sheqels had been paid to redeem Shmu'El (Samuel), he was no longer considered Hannah's firstborn, and thus he could be dedicated to YHWH after all.

28. "‘In any case, any devoted thing which a man consecrates to YHWH, from anything that belongs to him, whether man or animal or inherited field, shall neither be sold nor redeemed; it is most holy to YHWH.

29. "‘Nothing devoted to destruction which is dedicated by a human being may be ransomed; [it] must certainly be put to death.

Which is dedicated by a human being: Aramaic, "that involves a human being"; LXX, "that which is dedicated of men". Once we give YHWH a pledge to kill off something in our lives that hinders us, it cannot be taken back. Put to death: or die prematurely. Yifthakh learned the hard way not to be vague about such vows. (Judges 11) Only one in authority over us can negate a vow—and only at certain times.

Note that the tithe had nothing to do with money, but only agricultural products.

This might occur if a man is starving and yet has the reserve set aside to be consumed at Sukkoth, and so borrows from it because he has nothing else to eat, or from that which he is holding to take to the priests on his next trip to the Temple. This is understandable, but again there is still a 20% penalty.

The way a shepherd counted his sheep as they entered the narrow doorway to the fold was to have them walk under a rod. In the process of bringing the Body (which is also called "one bread", 1 Corinthians 10:17) to maturity with the "measure of the fullness of the stature of the Messiah" (Eph. 4), the job of the pastor/shepherd is to thresh (break the grain-head away from the stalk from which it grew and loosen the husk from around the kernel so the "teacher" can winnow). Yeshayahu/Isaiah 28:27-29 gives us more details about how this is to be done. The tool that both the shepherd of the flock and the one who threshes use is the rod (cf. Psalm 23:4), or a reed (Yesh./Isa. 42:1-4). The same instrument used to protect the sheep also keeps them in line: a shepherd will even break the legs of the sheep that habitually wanders, and then carry it on his shoulders, where it can become intimately attached to the shepherd and realize that he really does need him. In Y'chezq'El/Ezekiel 20:37, when YHWH promises to restore the scattered House of Israel from among the nations (breaking us away from what we grew up on--the world, and from the hull of useless relationships), He will cause us to "pass under the rod" and then it will mean He is purging out the rebellious ones, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. (Mat. 25:32ff; see also Rev. 11:1 and 21:5 for the measuring reed is an instrument of judgment. This separation is the essence of holiness.) But it is part of the process of re-entering His covenant. Yahshua's role as the Benevolent Shepherd (Yochanan 10) is outlined in Ezkl. 34.) Here, all the sheep are to be counted by tens, and every tenth one, healthy or not, is to be set aside as for YHWH, being devoted for priestly use or consumption. Yahshua, who is called the Lamb of Elohim, was born in what the Mishnah says was a Levitical shepherd's field at Migdal Eder (Mic. 4:8) in Beth Lechem-Ephratah (5:2, the fruitful part of Bethlehem, not downtown like the traditional site chosen by the guesswork of Constantine's mother).

Whether he thinks it an unfit gift for the king and wants to give a better one or thinks it is too nice to give up, it is out of our hands; it is still His. We can give another in addition, however.

Sinai is where we are headed during the Counting of the Omer, since the Torah was given there on Shavuoth. If we dedicate ourselves to be set in order so we will be worth something to the Kingdom, we will be counted among the righteous when the tally is made—and that is exactly how the next book begins. (Khazaq, khazaq, v’nitkhazeq!)