Leviticus 27:16

"And if a man shall sanctify unto Jehovah part of the field of his possession, then thy estimation shall be according to the sowing thereof: the sowing of a homer of barley shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. If he sanctify his field from the year of jubilee, according to thy estimation it shall stand. But if he sanctify his field after the jubilee, then the priest shall reckon unto him the money according to the years that remain unto the year of jubilee; and an abatement shall be made from thy estimation. And if he that sanctified the field will indeed redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be assured to him. And if he will not redeem the field, or if he hath sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed any more: but the field when it goeth out in the jubilee, shall be holy unto Jehovah, as a field devoted; the possession thereof shall be the priest's. And if he sanctify unto Jehovah a field which he hath bought, which is not of the field of his possession then the priest shall reckon unto him the worth of thy estimation unto the year of jubilee: and he shall give thine estimation in that day, as a holy thing unto Jehovah. In the year of jubilee the field shall return unto him of whom it was bought, even to him to whom the possession of the land belongeth. And all thy estimations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall be the shekel."

In these instructions regarding the devotions of fields, the thing that stands out is precedence of the year of Jubilee. Unalienable rights to the land by the descendants of the original possessors of Canaan could not be given away permanently, not even to the priests, except in instances where some fraud existed. Furthermore, all calculations of the right of redemption were made with reference to how many years still remained in the Jubilee. It appears that the right of redeeming devoted lands was calculated on a basis that would have favored the one wishing to redeem it. A value of fifty shekels was placed upon the amount of land that could be sowed with a homer of barley, "according to the sowing of a homer of barley" (Leviticus 27:16), but that fifty shekels paid for the full time of fifty years between Jubilees. That means one shekel per year. Some have attempted to read this valuation as a shekel a year for the amount of land that yielded a homer of barley, but we reject this on the basis that the yield of a field is not necessarily constant, whereas, the sowing of a field was a standard understood by everyone. It is true, as Wenham said, that, "Most commentators understand it" as we have indicated here.[9]

The instructions as to the kind of shekel to be used in redemption of vows were required because a shekel long in circulation would become worn and have less weight than the twenty gerahs (the standard weight of the shekel). The full weight of 10 shekels would therefore have been 200 gerahs, which might have required eleven worn shekels to be sufficient. "`According to the shekel of the sanctuary' therefore means the shekel at its full value, before worn by use in traffic."[10]