Leviticus 27:18

But if he sanctify his field after the jubile, then the priest shall reckon unto him the money according to the years that remain, even unto the year of the jubile, and it shall be abated from thy estimation.

If a field was dedicated after the Jubilee, the priest reckoned its money value according to the years that remained until the year of the Jubilee, and that amount was reduced from the stated estimation. The valuation was therefore proportional to the time left to the next Jubilee, with the assessed amount lowered accordingly. The reduction from the estimation is termed an abatement, the word used by the Revised Version.

The verse belongs to the law respecting the sanctifying of a man's substance to the Lord, setting how what is sanctified is valued and dealt with. If what was sanctified was exchanged, an amount was to be added to it, and what had been sanctified could not be taken back without an equivalent being given. The chapter as a whole concerns Israel's laws concerning redemption.

It stands in the law of what is set apart, separated, and devoted, where anathema means a curse or ban in the sense of 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, or the devoting of any man, animal, city, or thing to be extirpated, destroyed, consumed, and annihilated. The connected rules for redeeming consecrated property require an added fifth when the one who vowed wishes to keep the property. The added amount makes the vow good and marks the property's consecration as sacred.

A connected law allows a singular vow concerning a member of one's household to be redeemed at the priest's valuation. This shows that Jephthah's daughter was not offered as a burnt offering but was devoted to the Lord's service in perpetual virginity. The principle applies to landowners as the great Jubilee approaches, who may need to accept a sacrifice in selling land.

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