What Does Leviticus 27:7 Mean?

(7) **From sixty years old and above.**—Being almost past labour, the old man is next in value to the child. **A male . . . fifteen shekels.**—The old man is therefore to be redeemed at £1 18s. 9d. **The female ten shekels.**—The old woman, from sixty and upwards, is estimated at exactly the same value as the girl from five to twenty years old (see Leviticus 27:5), and hence is to be redeemed at *£1 *5s. 10d. It will be seen that the disproportion between a man and a woman is not the same in old age as in youth. The authorities during the second Temple account for it by adducing the adage, “An old man in the house is always in the way; an old woman in the house is a treasure, she manages all household affairs.”