Leviticus 27:10, commentary and pictures

Leviticus 27:10 belongs to the law governing vows and exchanges of property devoted to God, including Israel's laws concerning redemption. An animal dedicated or vowed to the Lord must not be altered or changed for another, a good for a bad or a bad for a good, whether better or worse or of different value, and if beast is at all changed for beast then it and the exchange thereof shall be holy. The law distinguishes what may be offered as a sacrifice from what must instead be redeemed, so that persons covered by a household vow were to be redeemed according to the priest's valuation rather than sacrificed. Vowed land or a house that is retained must be made good by paying the priest's valuation plus one fifth, which upholds the vow while marking the property's consecration to God.

Devotion under this law illustrates anathema as something set apart, separated, and devoted under a curse and ban, meaning absolute, irrevocable, and entire separation of a person from the communion of the faithful, from the number of the living, or from the privileges of society, and the devoting of any man, animal, city, or thing to be extirpated, destroyed, consumed, and as it were annihilated. What is devoted to God is holy and is the Lord's, such as the tithe, and worship belongs to God alone.

The verse gives the law of tithing, requiring a tenth of income, of what a person makes or receives, because the tithe belongs to God and not to the earner. Debt does not lessen the amount of tithe owed, and owing more does not change the duty, while what is paid to hired helpers and what is paid as interest is deducted, because the laborer and the lender are to tithe what they receive, while the tither pays a tenth on the rest as his own share. Faithful stewardship in paying tithe brings God's blessing, so that nine-tenths with God's blessing goes farther than ten-tenths without, and God helps the faithful tither to plan debts and obligations and to economize in time and means so as to meet them better by paying tithe than by keeping it. Civil government, meant by Caesar, has no right to exact devoted worship, to modify or direct it, or to lay any claim upon it whatsoever, and subjection to government holds only in the field for which its powers are ordained of God, such as protecting individual rights and collecting tribute for support of government, while what bears God's image and superscription is to be rendered to God.