26 "You may not dedicate a firstborn animal to the Lord, for the firstborn of your cattle, sheep, and goats already belong to him. 27 However, you may buy back the firstborn of a ceremonially unclean animal by paying the priest's assessment of its worth, plus 20Â percent. If you do not buy it back, the priest will sell it at its assessed value. 28 "However, anything specially set apart for the Lord -whether a person, an animal, or family property-must never be sold or bought back. Anything devoted in this way has been set apart as holy, and it belongs to the Lord . 29 No person specially set apart for destruction may be bought back. Such a person must be put to death. 30 "One-tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain from the fields or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord and must be set apart to him as holy. 31 If you want to buy back the Lord 's tenth of the grain or fruit, you must pay its value, plus 20Â percent. 32 Count off every tenth animal from your herds and flocks and set them apart for the Lord as holy. 33 You may not pick and choose between good and bad animals, and you may not substitute one for another. But if you do exchange one animal for another, then both the original animal and its substitute will be considered holy and cannot be bought back."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Leviticus 27:26-33
Commentary on Leviticus 27:26-33
(Read Leviticus 27:26-33)
Things or persons devoted, are distinguished from things or persons that were only sanctified. Devoted things were most holy to the Lord, and could neither be taken back nor applied to other purposes. Whatever productions they had the benefit, God must be honoured with the tenth of, if it could be applied. Thus they acknowledge God to be the Owner of their land, the Giver of its fruits, and themselves to be his tenants, and dependants upon him. Thus they gave him thanks for the plenty they enjoyed, and besought his favour in the continuance of it. We are taught to honour the Lord with our substance.