(25) According to the shekel of the sanctuary.—As the proceeds of these vows were devoted to the maintenance and repair of the sanctuary, all the valuations are to be made and paid according to the standard weight of the sanctuary shekel. (See Exodus 30:13.)

Leviticus 27:25. The shekel of the sanctuary — About 2 Samuel 6 d.

27:14-25 Our houses, lands, cattle, and all our substance, must be used to the glory of God. It is acceptable to him that a portion be given to support his worship, and to promote his cause. But God would not approve such a degree of zeal as ruined a man's family.On the shekel and the gerah, see Exodus 30:13, note; Exodus 38:24, note. 16-24. if a man shall sanctify unto the Lord some aprt of a field of his possession, &c.—In the case of acquired property in land, if not redeemed, it returned to the donor at the Jubilee; whereas the part of a hereditary estate, which had been vowed, did not revert to the owner, but remained attached in perpetuity to the sanctuary. The reason for this remarkable difference was to lay every man under an obligation to redeem the property, or stimulate his nearest kinsman to do it, in order to prevent a patrimonial inheritance going out from any family in Israel. No text from Poole on this verse.

And all thy estimation shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary,.... The shekel kept in the sanctuary, which was the standard of all shekels; not that there was a shekel in the sanctuary different from the common one; for every shekel ought to have been as that, of the full weight and worth of it; and the estimation was to be according to such a shekel, and the money paid in such, even in full weight:

twenty gerahs shall be the shekel; which the Targum of Jonathan calls "meahs" or "oboli", one of which was about three halfpence of our money, scarce so much, and weighed near eleven grains, as Bishop Cumberland (i) has calculated: see Ezekiel 45:12.

(i) Of Scripture Weights and Measures, ch. 4. p. 111.

And all thy estimations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall be the shekel.