Commentaria in Leviticum
16. IF A MAN CONSECRATE AND VOW A FIELD OF HIS POSSESSION (which he holds as his own and proper), THE PRICE SHALL BE RATED ACCORDING TO THE MEASURE OF THE SEED: IF THE GROUND BE SOWN WITH THIRTY BUSHELS OF BARLEY, IT SHALL BE SOLD FOR FIFTY SICLES OF SILVER.—If the field took more or less seed, the price was increased or diminished proportionally, so that if it was sown with 60 measures it was sold for a hundred shekels; if with only 15, it was sold for 25, and so on. It is likely that Abulensis holds that these 50 shekels are taken for a rent or revenue of 50 shekels; for if for so great a field as is sown with 30 measures only 50 shekels were paid once, that field would have been sold for too small and vile a price: it seems, therefore, to have been sold for 50 shekels, to be paid not once but yearly, or an annual rent of 50 shekels. For a field that is sown with 30 measures of barley easily yields yearly 50 shekels and more; let us suppose that one measure of seed yields ten measures in the harvest, so that a field of 30 measures of seed yields 300 measures in the harvest, and let us now grant that each measure of barley was then worth only four stivers: hence it will follow that 300 measures were worth 60 florins or shekels.
Note: For measures, the Hebrew is homer, which the Septuagint and Chaldee render corus. From this place it is plain that the homer or corus contained 30 measures. Wherefore it does not seem true what the Hebrews say, that homer is so called from chamor, that is, an ass, because it is a measure which an ass can carry; for an ass cannot carry 30 measures.
17. IF HE VOW THE FIELD IMMEDIATELY FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE JUBILEE, AS MUCH AS IT MAY BE WORTH AT THE ESTIMATION, SO MUCH SHALL IT BE SOLD.—For “as much as it may be worth,” the Septuagint and Chaldee render, according to the price or estimation of the field; the Hebrew has, thy estimation (O priest); for it was for the priest to estimate the price of the field, but according to the law already given, namely that for a field sown with 30 measures 50 shekels should be paid, if, namely, it were sold immediately from the jubilee, so that a shekel was reckoned for each year: for from one jubilee to the other there are 50 years; for the field was sold only up to the jubilee, because then it had to return to the first heir and owner. That the shekel here is understood not as simple but as annual, I said in the preceding verse.
If, therefore, a field was sown with 15 measures, it was for the priest to estimate it at 25 shekels, if the whole jubilee remained; if the whole did not remain, but some years had already elapsed, so that only 10, 20, 30 years remained, then in proportion to the time and the years it was for the priest to lessen the price, more or less. God here permits the master, who is the heir, vowing his field, to redeem it by paying 50 shekels in proportion to the years which remain up to the jubilee; but if he does not redeem it, he ordains that the field shall never, not even in the jubilee, return to him, but shall pass absolutely into the right of God and the priests; for this is what follows:
20 and 21. BUT IF HE (the master vowing and offering) WILL NOT REDEEM IT... IT SHALL BE SANCTIFIED TO THE LORD,—as if to say: This field in the time of the jubilee shall never return to the master who vowed it, but always to God, to whom by the vow of cherem, or anathema, it was sanctified, that is, consecrated; and therefore returning in the jubilee, not to its lay master, but to God, it is anew as it were sanctified, consecrated and confirmed to him: wherefore the master who had vowed it shall no more be able to redeem it, but it shall fall to the priests holding the place of God, who shall possess it for ever, by right as it were hereditary: so Vatablus; for this is what follows:
AND THE POSSESSION CONSECRATED SHALL BELONG TO THE RIGHT OF THE PRIESTS.—For “possession consecrated,” the Hebrew is the field of cherem, that is, the field of anathema or cutting off, as if to say: As a thing slain or cut off returns no more to life, so this field consecrated to God by vow, and not redeemed, can no more return to a lay or profane owner, but is consecrated to God for ever, and falls to the priests, yet so that they do not themselves possess that field, but at every jubilee sell it to someone of that tribe from which he was descended whose the field was, and who vowed and offered the field to God; and that for this reason, that priests might not possess fields; for this seems forbidden Numbers 18:20, and that the possessions of the tribes might not be diminished, or pass from tribe to tribe. So Abulensis, Quest. 36. The same law held if anyone had devoted his field to the Sanctuary.
In other things, however, if anyone had vowed them to the Sanctuary, the law was like that which was made about animals: for if the thing was such as could serve the uses of the Sanctuary, as victims, beasts of burden, brass, iron, gold, they could not be changed or redeemed, but fell to the treasury or ministry of the Sanctuary; but if the thing was unfit for the uses of the Sanctuary, as arms, books, garments, they were redeemed by the owner, with a fifth part of the price added besides; but if he would not redeem, the thing vowed was sold to others at the common price, and the price fell to the Sanctuary. So Abulensis, Quest. 51.
22, 23. IF IT BE A FIELD THAT WAS BOUGHT, AND NOT OF THE PATERNAL POSSESSION,—
The sense of this verse and the two following is this:
If a field be not the hereditary lot of the vower but be bought by him, so that it must return to its heir and tribe in the jubilee, then if the first buyer, the second, third, or even the twentieth shall vow it to God, the priest shall reckon how much time remains to the jubilee, and how much of the price at which the buyer bought it corresponds to that time, and the vower shall pay that in place of the field, and give it to the priests. Whence it appears that the buyer of the field, when he vowed it to God, was bound to pay that price of the field (for this alone is expressed here), and could not sell the field to another, and therefore the vower was not bound to add a fifth part of the price, as is commanded in the preceding case. The equitable and just reason of which was that in the preceding case it was free to the master to redeem the field or not to redeem it; the priest, however, was bound to give it back to him wishing to redeem it; but here, on the contrary, the burden is borne not by the priest but by the vower, who is compelled to redeem the field. Again, in the preceding case a fifth part of the price was added by the vowing master for the absolute and perpetual occupation of the thing: for other buyers of the thing bought it only up to the jubilee at the common price, beyond which it was a very small matter for the master redeeming the thing to add a fifth part of the price for its eternal possession; but in the case of this verse the redemption of the field was made only up to the jubilee: for he who bought it and vowed it had bought it only up to the jubilee, nor could he possess it beyond: for in the jubilee the field returned to the first heir and owner. Wherefore, in this case, the buyer vowing the thing is rightly and equitably compared with the other buyers of the preceding case, who paid only the common price in the redemption of the thing vowed by them, not with the master, who, as I said, is commanded to add a fifth part of the price for the absolute dominion of the thing and for the perpetual possession of it, which he acquires and recovers by this redemption.
24. IT SHALL RETURN TO THE FORMER OWNER.—The former owner here is not the buyer, who vowed the field, but is the first heir and possessor, who first sold the field, and therefore to him this field must return in the jubilee.
25. EVERY ESTIMATION SHALL BE WEIGHED BY THE SICLE OF THE SANCTUARY,—that is, as the Septuagint, with holy weights, that is, every price shall be weighed by the holy pound and holy weight. Hence it is plain that the shekel which was paid by reason of a vow had to be weighed against the shekel of the Sanctuary, not as if it were of a different price: for then it should have been said, it shall be reckoned, not weighed; but because the shekel which was kept in the Sanctuary was altogether uncorrupted and of most just weight, of which see what was said Exod. 30:13.
26. NO MAN MAY SANCTIFY AND (that is) VOW WHETHER IT BE BULLOCK OR SHEEP (or goat: for the Hebrew seh comprises this), THEY ARE THE LORD’S,—as if to say: These firstlings of ox, sheep and goat must be immolated to the Lord by reason of their primogeniture, as is plain Num. 18:17. I will not therefore that you vow them to me, since they are wholly mine, even if you do not vow them.
Hence Abulensis seems to teach that it is not properly a vow if one vows a thing commanded, for example, not to worship strange gods; though one may be bound more strictly than if he had not vowed. The reason of Abulensis is: Because, he says, a vow is only a spontaneous offering.
But this opinion is absolutely not true; for we can vow every good and holy thing, whether it be of counsel or of precept: for it is good and laudable to perform the same thing from religion and vow, which thou wast bound to perform from obedience. For a new goodness of the virtue of religion accrues from the vow to this act of precept and obedience. So Jacob, Gen. 28:21, vowed that the Lord should be to him for God, that is, that he would always have and worship God as his and all men’s supreme Lord: to which nevertheless he was bound by precept. You will say: A vow is a spontaneous offering. I answer: That is true with regard to the act of the vower; for this must be spontaneous: for to vow is to anyone spontaneous and free, commanded to none; but false with regard to the thing vowed: for this is often not spontaneous, but necessary and commanded.