Thus, to place an animal under the ban is to misinterpret this law. The owner can buy back the beast at a market price, but probably at public auction. Then he pays an additional 20 percent to the church. Summary This law still applies to agricultural productivity, especially herds. The tithe is collected on net increase.
Birth order determines which beasts replace dead beasts.
By implication, lost, stolen, or taxed crops can be replaced by new crops without any tithe's being owed. Those newborn beasts that constituted net increase were to be selected randomly to pass under the Levite's rod. Groups of animals within a species can lawfully be segregated today, with the tithe taken from within each group. There is no tithe on the final nine members of the group. This is the economic equivalent of allowing a farmer to set aside from this year's crop an amount equal to last year's seed.