[If] one says: ‘I take upon myself [to give] my weight,’ he gives his weight. If [he specified] silver, [he is required to give] silver; if [he specified] gold, [he is required to give] gold. [There was] an incident concerning the mother of Yirmatia, who said, ‘I take upon myself [to give] my daughter’s weight,’ and she went up to Jerusalem and they weighed her, and she gave her weight [in] gold. [If one says,] ‘I take upon myself [to give] the weight of my arm’ — R’ Yehudah says: He fills a cask [with] water and inserts [his arm] up to his elbow, and he takes donkey meat, sinews, and bones, and he adds to it until it fills up. R’ Yose said: Now how is it possible to determine precisely flesh against flesh and bones against bones? Rather, we estimate how much the arm is likely to weigh.

[If one says,] ‘I take upon myself [to give] the value of my arm’ — we evaluate him [to determine] how much he is worth with the arm and how much he is worth without the arm. This is the stringency of vows [of worth] over arachin-vows. And the stringency of arachin-vows over vows [of worth] is in what manner? [If] one said, ‘I take upon myself [to give] my erech,’ and he died, the heirs must give [it]. [But if one said,] ‘I take upon myself [to give] my worth,’ and he died, the heirs need not give [it], for the dead have no worth. [If one says,] ‘I take upon myself [to give] the erech of my arm,’ or, ‘the erech of my leg’ — he has said nothing. [But if one says,] ‘I take upon myself [to give] the erech of my head,’ or ‘the erech of my liver’ — he must give the erech of his entire self. This is the rule: [For] anything upon which one’s life depends, he gives the erech of his entire self.

[If one says,] ‘I take upon myself [to give] half my erech’ — he gives half his erech; [but if he says,] ‘I take upon myself [to give] the erech of half of myself’ — he gives his whole erech. [If one says,] ‘I take upon myself [to give] half my worth’ — he gives half his worth; [but if he says,] ‘I take upon myself [to give] the worth of half of myself’ — he gives his whole worth. This is the rule: [For] anything upon which one’s life depends, he must give the erech of his entire self.

[If] one says, ‘I take upon myself [to give] the erech of so-and-so’ — [even if both] the vower and the subject of the vow died, the heirs must give [it]. [If he says,] ‘I take upon myself [to give] the worth of so-and-so’ — if the vower died, the heirs must give [it]; [but if] the subject of the vow died, the heirs need not give [it], for the dead have no worth.