Leviticus 27:29 and Human Sacrifice

[Shea Zellweger]

Lev. 27:29 says " 'No person devoted to destruction may be ransomed; he must be put to death." (NIV)

I've read some commentaries on this- some suggesting that it is God who does the devoting, and others saying that essentially "devoted to destruction" means "committed until death," but in the context of the rest of Lev. 27, it seems to me that this verse is calling for human sacrifice. I was of the impression that human sacrifice is explicitly forbidden by Leviticus, but the only thing I can find is sacrificing people to "molech," which does not rule out sacrificing people to YHWH...
Can someone help me out with this verse and what it means?

[Hans Deventer]

Shea, Jacob Milgrom doesn't mention the idea of human sacrifice here. As I understand sacrifice, it was meant to please a god, avert judgement, acquire his favour, that kind of stuff. But such is not the issue here. Milgrom writes: "The proscription attested in the Bible is exercised by Israel against other nations as the result of either a vow (Num 21:2-3) or God's command (Num 25:16-18, 31:1-12), or against its own rebels (Exod 22:19, Deut 13:13-19, Judg 20:48, 21:10-11.)

In fact, it says in Ex 22:20 "Whoever sacrifices to any god, other than the LORD alone, shall be devoted to destruction (or proscribed in other translations)". You don't sacrifice people to God as a punishment. All the animal sacrifices dealt with innocent animals (obviously). And God has never commanded human sacrifice.

Jeremiah 32:35 - "They built high places for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech, though I never commanded, nor did it enter my mind, that they should do such a detestable thing and so make Judah sin."

[Ryan Scott]

The teachings of Paul - and perhaps Jesus - talk about sacrifice for God. This often seems like a choice made by the individual, rather than a violent murder often associated with other human sacrifice. Still, it seems like we do have an idea of self-sacrifice, but perhaps we've not associated it fully enough with the seriousness Leviticus brings to the discussion?

[Todd Erickson]

I think that this is more like, "If you are found guilty of death for your crimes against X, people cannot pay to get you out of your execution".

[Dennis Bratcher]

Lev. 27:29 says " 'No person devoted to destruction may be ransomed; he must be put to death." (NIV)

I've read some commentaries on this- some suggesting that it is God who does the devoting, and others saying that essentially "devoted to destruction" means "committed until death," but in the context of the rest of Lev. 27, it seems to me that this verse is calling for human sacrifice. I was of the impression that human sacrifice is explicitly forbidden by Leviticus, but the only thing I can find is sacrificing people to "molech," which does not rule out sacrificing people to YHWH...
Can someone help me out with this verse and what it means?

I started a short response and it turned into an article: Devoted to Destruction (http://www.crivoice.org/terms/t-herem.html)

Grace and Peace,

Dennis B.