If your vow involves an unclean animal—one that is not acceptable as an offering to the Lord—then you must bring the animal to the priest.
Parallel translations
- WEB If it is any unclean animal, of which they do not offer as an offering to Yahweh, then he shall set the animal before the priest;
- KJV And if it be any unclean beast, of which they do not offer a sacrifice unto the LORD, then he shall present the beast before the priest:
- BSB But if the vow involves any of the unclean animals that may not be brought as an offering to the LORD, the animal must be presented before the priest.
- NKJV If it is an unclean animal which they do not offer as a sacrifice to the Lord, then he shall present the animal before the priest;
- NASB If, however, it is any unclean animal of the kind which one does not present as an offering to the Lord, then he shall place the animal before the priest.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
An unclean animal unfit for sacrifice that is vowed must be brought to the priest for valuation. Even such gifts are handled with care before God.
Overview
Animals that could not be offered on the altar still belonged to the sanctuary if vowed, but had to be assessed for their monetary value. The priest mediated the process. This shows that all devoted gifts, even those not directly usable in sacrifice, were treated with order and reverence under God's law.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 2
- Mal 1:14“But the deceiver is cursed, who has in his flock a male, and vows, and sacrifices to the Lord a defective thing; for I am a great King,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and my name is awesome among the nations.”
- Deut 23:18You shall not bring the hire of a prostitute, or the wages of a male prostitute, into the house of Yahweh your God for any vow; for both of these are an abomination to Yahweh your God.
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Christ at the center
Every sacrifice, every priest, and every day of atonement points beyond itself to the one perfect offering and the great High Priest who, by his own blood, makes the unclean holy once for all.
How Leviticus 27:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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