Leviticus 27:2

“Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When a man makes a special votive offering ¹  based on the conversion value of persons to the Lord, ² 

"Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If anyone makes a special vow to dedicate persons to the LORD by giving equivalent values,

"Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When a man makes a difficult vow, he shall be valued according to your valuation of persons belonging to the LORD.

"Give the following instructions to the Israelites: If you make a special vow to dedicate someone to the LORD by paying the value of that person,

"Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them: If anyone wants to vow the value of a person to the service of GOD,

Say to the children of Israel, If a man makes a special oath, you will give your decision as to the value of the persons for the Lord.

Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When a person makes an explicit vow to the LORD concerning the equivalent for a human being,

"Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When a man consecrates by a vow certain persons to the LORD, according to your valuation,

“Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When a man makes a special votive offering ¹  based on the conversion value of persons to the Lord, ² 

¹ tn Cf. the note on Lev 22:21. Some take this as an expression for fulfilling a vow, “to fulfill a vow” (e.g., HALOT 927-28 s.v. פלא piel and NASB; cf. NRSV “in fulfillment of a vow”) or, alternatively, “to make a vow” or “for making a vow” (HALOT 928 s.v. פלא piel [II פלא]). Perhaps it refers to the making a special vow, from the verb פָלָא (pala’, “to be wonderful; to be remarkable”), cf. Milgrom, Numbers [JPSTC], 44. B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 151 and 193, suggests that this is a special term for “setting aside a votive offering” (related to פָלָה, palah, “to set aside”). In general, the point of the expression seems to be that this sacrifice is a special gift to God that arose out of special circumstances in the life of the worshiper.

² tn Heb “in your valuation, persons to the Lord,” but “in your valuation” is a frozen form and, therefore, the person (“your”) does not figure into the translation (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 73). Instead of offering a person to the Lord one could redeem that person with the appropriate amount of money delineated in the following verses (see the note on Lev 5:15 above and the explanation in Hartley, 480-81).