a beka a head, that is, half a shekel, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, for everyone who passed over to those who were counted, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred three thousand five hundred fifty men.
Parallel Translations
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a beka a head, that is, half a shekel, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, for everyone who passed over to those who were counted, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred three thousand five hundred fifty men.
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A bekah for every man, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for every one that went to be numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty men.
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a beka a head, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for every one that passed over to them that are numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty men.
Cross-references (4)
Passages linked to Exodus 38:26 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Numbers 1:46 all those who were counted were six hundred three thousand five hundred fifty.
- Exodus 30:13 They shall give this, everyone who passes over to those who are counted, half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs); half a shekel for an offering to Yahweh.
- Exodus 12:37 The children of Israel traveled from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot who were men, in addition to children.
- Exodus 30:15-16 The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when they give the offering of Yahweh, to make atonement for your souls. You shall take the atonement money from the children of Israel, and shall appoint it for the service of the Tent of Meeting; that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel before Yahweh, to make atonement for your souls.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (8 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Or, half a shekel.
Or, half a shekel.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And of the thousand seven hundred seventy five shekels,....…
And of the thousand seven hundred seventy five shekels,.... Which remained of the sum collected, Exo 38:25 after the silver sockets were cast:
he made hooks for the pillars: on each side of the court of the tabernacle on which the hangings were hung; these hooks, as Kimchi says (t), were in the form of the letter and were made to hang the sacrifices upon, when they took their skins off; and so it is said in the Misnah (u), that there were iron hooks fixed in the walls and pillars, on which they hung (the passover lambs) and skinned them; this was done in the second temple, when the hooks, it seems, were iron, but those of the tabernacle were silver:
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and overlaid their chapiters, and filleted them; that is, overlaid the heads, tops, or knobs of the pillars with silver plates, and filleted, girded, or hooped other parts of them with silver.
(t) Sepher Shorash. Rad. (u) Pesachim, c. 5. sect. 9.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 26. A bekah for every man] The Hebrew…
Verse 26. A bekah for every man] The Hebrew word בקי beka, from בקי baka, to divide, separate into two, seems to signify, not a particular coin, but a shekel broken or cut in two; so, anciently, our farthing was a penny divided in the midst and then subdivided, so that each division contained the fourth part of the penny; hence its name fourthing or fourthling, since corrupted into farthing.
THERE appear to be three particular reasons why much riches should be employed in the construction of the tabernacle, c.
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1. To impress the people's minds with the glory and dignity of the Divine Majesty, and the importance of his service.
2. To take out of their hands the occasion of covetousness for as they brought much spoils out of Egypt, and could have little if any use for gold and silver in the wilderness, where it does not appear that they had much intercourse with any other people, and were miraculously supported, so that they did not need their riches, it was right to employ that in the worship of God which otherwise might have engendered that love which is the root of all evil.
3. To prevent pride and vainglory, by leading them to give up to the Divine service even the ornaments of their persons, which would have had too direct a tendency to divert their minds from better things. Thus God's worship was rendered august and respectable, incitements to sin and low desires removed, and the people instructed to consider nothing valuable, but as far as it might be employed to the glory and in the service of God.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain A bekah - Literally, “a half”: the words “half…
A bekah - Literally, “a half”: the words “half a shekel,” etc. appear to be inserted only for emphasis, to enforce the accuracy to be observed in the payment. See Exo 30:13. Respecting the capitation and the numbering of the people, see Exo 30:12.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 26. a beḳa‘] Gen_24:22.† Lit. a thing cleft or…
26. a beḳa‘] Gen_24:22.† Lit. a thing cleft or halved. Three beḳa‘s have been found recently in Palestine (Qu. St. of PEF., 1904, pp. 179, 211, ZDPV. 1906, p. 94), weighing respectively 90.58, 94.28, and 102.5 grains Troy. They are apparently light, or worn, beḳa‘s of the ‘Phoenician’ standard (DB. iv. 905b; EB. iv. 4444, 5297 f.), in which the shekel weighed 224 grs.
that passed over to them that were numbered] as Exo_30:13.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (26) A bekah for every man.—The word “bekah” means…
(26) A bekah for every man.—The word “bekah” means simply a half, but appears to have been restricted in its use to the half-shekel. (Comp. Gen_24:22.) The exegetical clause, half a shekel,” is probably a later addition to the text, inserted to clear the sense.
For every one that went to be numbered.—It is remarkable that the principle of compulsory payment towards the fabric of the sanctuary should have received a sanction at the very time when the greatest stress was laid upon the greater acceptableness of voluntary offerings. (See Exo_25:2; Exo_35:5; Exo_35:21-29.) Whatever may be thought of the expediency of levying church-rates, they are clearly defensible in principle, both from the standpoint of the Old Testament and of the New (Mat_17:24-27).
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From twenty years old and upward.—See Note on Exo_30:14.
Six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty.—The identity of this number with that which is given in Num_1:46, as arrived at “in the second year, on the first day of the second month” (Num_1:1), is best explained by regarding both passages as having reference to the same transaction. The taking of the census occupied several months, during which the money was gradually collected, the sockets, &c., made, and the Tabernaclo set up. The registration was deferred, and took place on a single day, when Moses and Aaron went round the tribes, received the results from their hands, and entered them in a book. It appears from Num_1:47 that the Levites were not counted in the sum total, no atonement money being taken from them. (See Birks’ Exodus of Israel, pp. 118-120.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain A bekah for every man. Literally, "for every head."…
A bekah for every man. Literally, "for every head." From twenty years old and upward. Compare Num_1:3, Num_1:22, etc. Six hundred thousand, etc. It is remarkable that this number agrees exactly with the sum total of the numbering in Num_2:32, which took place about six months later, and was exclusive of 22, 000 Levites. Perhaps the number was lost in this place, and restored from Num_2:32, without its being recollected that the Levites were not included in that reckoning.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 38:26 For the earlier discussion of this tax, see…
38:26 For the earlier discussion of this tax, see 30:11-16. The sanctuary shekel was evidently the standard against which other weights were measured for accuracy. • 603,550: See study note on 12:37.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.