But if he will at all redeem it, then he shall add a fifth part thereof unto thy estimation.
The law for redeeming what has been devoted under the laws of vows and tithes is that if the one who devoted an animal, property, or other consecrated item wishes to redeem, keep, or change it, he must pay its estimated or assessed value as fixed by the priest's valuation plus a fifth part added to it. What a person consecrates to God from his substance becomes holy and sacred to God, and the payment of the added fifth makes the vow good. The verse belongs to the law of anathema, which means a curse, a ban, something set apart, separated, and devoted. Anathema is 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 it is the devoting of any man, animal, city, or thing to be extirpated, destroyed, consumed, and as it were annihilated.
The law also provided for redemption at the priest's valuation when a singular vow concerned someone in the household. Devoting Jephthah's daughter to the Lord's service was distinct from offering her as a burnt offering and meant perpetual virginity. The chapter containing the verse gives the law of tithing: the tithe is a tenth of income, of what a person makes or receives, not a tenth of what is cleared after debts. Owing debts even double debts does not change the amount, but what is paid to others connected in the work for labor or interest is deducted because they are to tithe what they receive, and the tithe is not the person's own but belongs to God.
The tithe is the Lord's, bearing God's image and claim, and therefore belongs to God and not to Caesar. Civil government has no right to lay any claim upon it, to exact it, modify it, or direct it. The required fifth teaches the sacredness of God's claims upon things that belong to him in a special sense, as illustrated by the Sabbath, the tithe, and the first-fruits. Acknowledging God's claims brings special blessing: one who truly becomes God's steward in paying the tithe will find the nine-tenths go farther with God's blessing than the ten-tenths without it. God will help him so plan debts and obligations and economize time and means that he is better able to meet obligations by paying tithes than by retaining them. Continual giving in acknowledgment of God's claims guards the heart from covetousness and cultivates the benevolence that is part of the grace of Christ.
The law for redeeming what has been devoted under the laws of vows and tithes is that if the one who devoted an animal, property, or other consecrated item wishes to redeem, keep, or change it, he must pay its estimated or assessed value as fixed by the priest's valuation plus a fifth part added to it. What a person consecrates to God from his substance becomes holy and sacred to God, and the payment of the added fifth makes the vow good. The verse belongs to the law of anathema, which means a curse, a ban, something set apart, separated, and devoted. Anathema is 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 it is the devoting of any man, animal, city, or thing to be extirpated, destroyed, consumed, and as it were annihilated.
The law also provided for redemption at the priest's valuation when a singular vow concerned someone in the household. Devoting Jephthah's daughter to the Lord's service was distinct from offering her as a burnt offering and meant perpetual virginity. The chapter containing the verse gives the law of tithing: the tithe is a tenth of income, of what a person makes or receives, not a tenth of what is cleared after debts. Owing debts even double debts does not change the amount, but what is paid to others connected in the work for labor or interest is deducted because they are to tithe what they receive, and the tithe is not the person's own but belongs to God.
The tithe is the Lord's, bearing God's image and claim, and therefore belongs to God and not to Caesar. Civil government has no right to lay any claim upon it, to exact it, modify it, or direct it. The required fifth teaches the sacredness of God's claims upon things that belong to him in a special sense, as illustrated by the Sabbath, the tithe, and the first-fruits. Acknowledging God's claims brings special blessing: one who truly becomes God's steward in paying the tithe will find the nine-tenths go farther with God's blessing than the ten-tenths without it. God will help him so plan debts and obligations and economize time and means that he is better able to meet obligations by paying tithes than by retaining them. Continual giving in acknowledgment of God's claims guards the heart from covetousness and cultivates the benevolence that is part of the grace of Christ.