Leviticus 27:16
וְאִם׀ מִשְּׂדֵה אֲחֻזָּתוֹ יַקְדִּישׁ אִישׁ לַֽיהוָה וְהָיָה עֶרְכְּךָ לְפִי זַרְעוֹ זֶרַע חֹמֶר שְׂעֹרִים בַּחֲמִשִּׁים שֶׁקֶל כָּֽסֶף׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְאִ֣ם׀ מִשְּׂדֵ֣ה אֲחֻזָּת֗וֹ יַקְדִּ֥ישׁ אִישׁ֙ לַֽיהוָ֔ה וְהָיָ֥ה עֶרְכְּךָ֖ לְפִ֣י זַרְע֑וֹ זֶ֚רַע חֹ֣מֶר שְׂעֹרִ֔ים בַּחֲמִשִּׁ֖ים שֶׁ֥קֶל כָּֽסֶף׃
Ἐὰν δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀγροῦ τῆς κατασχέσεως αὐτοῦ ἁγιάσῃ ἄνθρωπος τῷ κυρίῳ, καὶ ἔσται ἡ τιμὴ κατὰ τὸν σπόρον αὐτοῦ, κόρου κριθῶν πεντήκοντα δίδραχμα ἀργυρίου.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Quod si agrum possessionis suæ voverit, et consecraverit Domino, juxta mensuram sementis æstimabitur pretium: si triginta modiis hordei seritur terra, quinquaginta siclis venundetur argenti.
“‘Si alguien dedica a Yehová una parte de los campos de su propiedad familiar, el valor se calculará de acuerdo con la cantidad de semilla que se necesite para sembrarlo. La siembra de un costal grande de cebada se calculará en cincuenta monedas de plata.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y si alguno santificare de la tierra de su posesión á Jehová, tu estimación será conforme á su sembradura: un omer de sembradura de cebada se apreciará en cincuenta siclos de plata.
If a man consecrates to the LORD a parcel of his land, then your valuation shall be proportional to the seed required for it — fifty shekels of silver for every homer of barley seed.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse addresses a case where someone consecrates part of his inherited field to Yehovah. The valuation is not fixed but calculated according to the amount of seed the field requires for sowing, using barley as the standard: a field sown with one chomer ("homer", H2563C) of barley is valued at fifty shekels of silver.
Key words
- yakdish ("he will set apart as holy", H6942H) — hiphil imperfect, causative form: the subject actively causes the field to become holy/dedicated, rather than the field being holy on its own.
- 'erke ("valuation", H6187) — construct noun with 2nd person suffix ("your valuation"), tying the assessment to the addressee (traditionally understood as the priest performing the calculation) rather than to an abstract fixed rate.
- zera' ("seed", H2233G) — appears twice in the verse (as zar'o, "his seed," referring to sowing capacity, and again in zera' chomer, "seed of a homer"), anchoring the valuation formula to agricultural measurement rather than to the field's market price.
- chomer ("a homer of", H2563C) — construct noun naming a specific dry-measure unit; the valuation is pegged to this unit of barley seed.
- hayah ("it will be", H1961) — qal sequential perfect (vav-consecutive), linking this clause to the preceding condition as the narrative's continuation: once the man consecrates the field, "it will be" that the valuation follows.
What the text says
The verse opens with the conditional particle 'Im ("if", H0518A), governing a subordinate clause built around the hiphil verb yakdish: "if...a man sets apart as holy [some] of the field of his possession." The construct chain se.Deh 'a.chu.za.T-o ("field of his possession") specifies that this is land belonging to the person's hereditary property, not any field. The subject 'ish ("anyone", H0376I) follows the verb, a common Hebrew word order in conditional legal clauses.
The apodosis begins with ve.hayah ("and it will be"), a sequential perfect that marks the legal consequence following the condition. The valuation formula 'erke.kha le.fi zar'o ("your valuation according to the mouth/proportion of its seed") uses le.fi ("to the mouth of", H6310K) idiomatically to mean "according to" or "in proportion to" — the valuation scales with the amount of seed the field requires. The final clause specifies the standard: zera' chomer se'orim ba-chamishim sheqel kasef — a seed-measure of one homer of barley corresponds to fifty shekels of silver, establishing a rate rather than a flat sum.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew measure chomer ("homer", H2563C) is rendered by the LXX as κόρου ("kor"), a Greek dry-measure term, and by the Vulgate as "triginta modiis" ("thirty modii"), introducing a specific numeric equivalence not present in the Hebrew text, which only names the unit chomer without converting it into another measurement system.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.