VOWS

VOWS

1. Deut.23:23 That which is gone out of thy lips thou shalt observe and do. According as thou hast vowed freely unto YHWH your Elohim, even that which thou hast promised with thy mouth. 

Eccles.5:5 Better not to vow than to vow and not pay.

2. Num.30:2 If a man makes a vow to YHWH, or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. 

Prov.20:25 It is a snare for a man to devote rashly something as holy (an impulsive vow), and afterward to reconsider his vows.

3. Deut.23:21 When you make a vow to YHWH your Elohim, you shall not delay to pay it. For YHWH your Elohim will surely require it of you, and it would be sin to you.

Act.5:1 But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession. And he kept back part (from amount he promised *) of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to YHWH.” Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last. So great fear came upon all those who heard these things. And the young men arose and wrapped him up, carried him out, and buried him. Now it was about three hours later when his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter answered her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much?” She said, “Yes, for so much.” Then Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of YHWH? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” Then immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. And the young men came in and found her dead, and carrying her out, buried her by her husband. So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things.

* amount he promised: Nobody can force or, moreover, to condemn a person to give a donation as much as he pleases. A person falls under condemnation if he only made a promise.  

4. Deut.23:21 But if you abstain from vowing, it shall not be sin to you.

Mtt.5:34 But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is YHWH throne nor by the earth, for it is His footstool nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your “Yes” be “Yes”, and your “No”, “No”. For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.

Jam.5:12 But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes,” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into judgment.

5. Deut.23:18 And don’t bring the fee of a sacred whore or the earnings of a priest-pimp (the price of a dog) to the house of YHWH your Elohim, to pay for any vow – they are both an abomination to YHWH your Elohim.

Mtt.27:5 Then he (Judas) threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself. But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because they are the price of blood.”

VALUATION BY A VOW

6. Lev.27:2 When a man consecrates by a vow certain persons to YHWH, according to your valuation, if your valuation is of a male from twenty years old up to sixty years old, then your valuation shall be fifty shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. If it is a female, then your valuation shall be thirty shekels.

MEN, 20-60 YEARS OLD = 50

WOMEN, 20-60 YEARS OLD = 30

7. Lev.27:5 If from five years old up to twenty years old, then your valuation for a male shall be twenty shekels, and for a female ten shekels.

MEN, 5-30 YEARS OLD = 20

WOMEN, 5-20 YEARS OLD = 10

8. Lev.27:6 If from a month old up to five years old, then your valuation for a male shall be five shekels of silver, and for a female your valuation shall be three shekels of silver.

MEN, 1 MONTH TO 5 YEARS OLD = 5

WOMEN, 1 MONTH TO 5 YEARS OLD = 3

9. Lev.27:7 If from sixty years old and above, if it is a male, then your valuation shall be fifteen shekels, and for a female ten shekels.

MEN, 60 AND OLDER= 15

WOMEN, 60 AND OLDER = 10

10. Lev.27:8 But if he is too poor to pay your valuation, then he shall present himself before the priest, and the priest shall set a value for him. According to the ability of him who vowed, the priest shall value him.

11. Lev.27:9 If it is an animal that men may bring as an offering to YHWH, all that anyone gives to YHWH shall be holy*.

* ‘holy’ – in Hebrew קֹדֶשׁ (kō’·desh) – ‘apartness’, ‘separateness’, ‘out of the ordinary’, ‘special’.

12. Lev.27:10 He shall not substitute it or exchange it, good for bad or bad for good. And if he at all exchanges animal for animal, then both it and the one exchanged for it shall be holy.

13. Lev.27:11 If it is an unclean animal which they do not offer as a sacrifice to YHWH, then he shall present the animal before the priest. And the priest shall set a value for it, whether it is good or bad. As you, the priest, value it, so it shall be.

14. Lev.27:13 But if he wishes to redeem it, he shall add a fifth (20%) to your valuation.

15. Lev.27:14 If a man dedicates his house to be sacred to YHWH, the priest shall appraise it, whether it be good or bad. As the priest appraises it, so shall it stand.

16. Lev.27:15 If he who dedicates his house wants to redeem it, he shall add a fifth (20%) of your valuation to it, and it shall be his.

17. Lev.27:16 If a man dedicates to YHWH part of a field of his possession, then your valuation shall be according to the seed for it. A homer (omer) of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver.

18. Lev.27:17 If he dedicates his field from the Year of Jubilee, according to your valuation it shall stand. 

19. Lev.27:18 But if he dedicates his field after the Jubilee, then the priest shall count the money value in proportion to the years that remain until the Year of Jubilee, and it shall be deducted from your valuation.

20. Lev.27:19 If he who dedicates the field wishes to redeem it, then he shall add a fifth (20%) of the money of your appraisal to it, and it shall remain his.

21. Lev.27:20 But if he does not want to redeem the field, or if he has sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed anymore. But the field, when it is released in the Jubilee, shall be holy to YHWH, as a devoted field. It shall be the possession of the priest.

22. Lev.27:22 And if a man dedicates to YHWH a field which he has bought, which is not the field of his possession, then the priest shall reckon to him the worth of your valuation, up to the Year of Jubilee, and he shall give your valuation on that day as a holy offering to YHWH. In the Year of Jubilee the field shall return to him from whom it was bought, to the one who owned the land as a possession.

23. Lev.27:25 And all your valuations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs to the shekel.

24. Lev.27:27 If it be of an unclean animal, the owner may redeem it according to your valuation, and shall add a fifth to it (20%) or if it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your valuation.

25. Lev.27:28 But nothing that a man shall devote to YHWH of all that he has, whether of man or beast or of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed. Every devoted thing is most holy to YHWH.

VOW OF NAZIRITE

26. Num.6:2 When either a man or woman consecrates an offering to take the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to YHWH, he shall separate himself from wine and similar drink. He shall drink neither vinegar made from wine nor vinegar made from similar drink; neither shall he drink any grape juice, nor eat fresh grapes or raisins. All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, from seed to skin.

‘Nazir’ in Hebrew נזיר means ‘devoted’, ‘sanctified’. The symbols of the vineyard, haircut and not touching the dead body do not serve to create an image of an isolated monk but they constitute a deeper meaning. Each one of us can make a vow in any area of life, for example: Act.18:18 Sha’ul remained for some time, then said good-bye to the brothers and sailed off to Syria, after having his hair cut short in Cenchrea, because he had taken a vow; with him were Priscilla and Aquila.  Act.21:23 So do what we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow. Take them with you, be purified with them, and pay the expenses connected with having their heads shaved. Then everyone will know that there is nothing to these rumors which they have heard about you. But that, on the contrary, you yourself stay in line and keep the Torah.

Was Yeshua a Nazirite?

Mtt.2:23 And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, “He shall be called a Nazarene”. Some translations of this verse say that Yeshua was a Nazirite; however, the correct translation is that he was a ‘Nazarene’ or ‘from Nazareth’. It is known that Yeshua drank wine, so he could not have been following the vow of Nazirites. However, a prophecy that ‘He shall be called Nazarene’ can be found nowhere in Tanakh. Matthew is quoting the verse from Isaiah: ‘And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, and a BRANCH shall grow out of his roots’ (Is. 11:1), since the word Nazareth, or Natzrat, sounds very similar to the word ‘shoot’ in Hebrew and has the same root as the word ‘netzer’ נצר which stands for ‘shoot’, ‘sprout’, ‘branch’. 

27. Num.6:5 All the days of the vow of his separation no razor shall come upon his head. Until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to YHWH, he shall be holy. Then he shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. 

28. Num.6:6 All the days that he separates himself to YHWH he shall not go near a dead body. He shall not make himself unclean even for his father or his mother, for his brother or his sister, when they die, because his separation to YHWH is on his head.

Mtt.8:21 Then another of His disciples said to Him, “Sir, let me first go and bury my father.” But Yeshua said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

29. Num.6:8 All the days of his separation he shall be holy to YHWH. 

30. Num.6:9 And if anyone dies very suddenly beside him, and he defiles his consecrated head, then he shall shave his head on the day of his cleansing. On the seventh day he shall shave it. Then on the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting. And the priest shall offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, and make atonement for him, because he sinned in regard to the corpse. And he shall sanctify his head that same day. He shall consecrate to YHWH the days of his separation (consecration), and bring a male lamb in its first year as a trespass offering. But the former days shall be lost, because his separation (consecration) was defiled.

31. Num.6:13 Now this is the law of the Nazirite: When the days of his separation are fulfilled, he shall be brought to the door of the tabernacle of meeting. And he shall present his offering to YHWH: one male lamb in its first year without blemish as a burnt offering, one ewe lamb in its first year without blemish as a sin offering, one ram without blemish as a peace offering, a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and their grain offering with their drink offerings. Then the priest shall bring them before YHWH and offer his sin offering and his burnt offering. And he shall offer the ram as a sacrifice of peace offering to YHWH, with the basket of unleavened bread. The priest shall also offer its grain offering and its drink offering. 

32. Num.6:18 Then the Nazirite shall shave his consecrated head at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and shall take the hair from his consecrated head and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace offering. And the priest shall take the boiled shoulder of the ram, one unleavened cake from the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and put them upon the hands of the Nazirite after he has shaved his consecrated hair.

33. Num.6:20 And the priest shall wave them as a wave offering before YHWH. They are holy for the priest, together with the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the heave offering. After that the Nazirite may drink wine.

34. Num.6:21 This is the law of the Nazirite who vows to YHWH the offering for his separation, and besides that, whatever else his hand is able to provide. According to the vow which he takes, so he must do according to the Law (Torah) of his separation.

Nowadays the topic of sacrifice is outdated. However, prior to the Messianic times, sacrifices had a very distinct earthly shape and meaning: they were an important part of a Levite’s ministry and they took place in the Tabernacle or the Temple. Today there is no Temple and Yeshua is the Priest who will carry the priesthood as a heavenly type of ministry in the new Messianic era, where Sacrifice has already been accepted! (Hebrews chapter 9).