Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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this tribute was to be paid as a ransom of the soul, that there might be no plague among them. Hereby they acknowledged that they received their lives from God, that they had forfeited their lives to him, and that they depended upon his power and patience for the continuance of them; and thus they did homage to the God of their lives, and deprecated those plagues which their sins had deserved.
13 This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are
numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs :) a half shekel shall be the offering of the Lord.
14 Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from
twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the Lord.
15 The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than
half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls.
The tribute to be paid was half a shekel, about fifteen pence of our money. The rich were not to give more, nor the poor less (Ex 30:15), to intimate that the souls of the rich and poor are alike precious, and that God is no respecter of persons, Ac 10:34,Job 34:19. In other offerings men were to give according to their ability; but this, which was the ransom of the soul, must be alike for all; for the rich have as much need of Christ as the poor, and the poor are as welcome to him as the rich. They both alike contributed to the maintenance of the temple-service, because both were to have a like interest in it and benefit by it. In Christ and his ordinances rich and poor meet together; the Lord is the Maker, the Lord Christ is the Redeemer of them both, Pr 22:2 The Jews say, "If a man refused to pay this tribute, he was not comprehended in the expiation."
16 And thou shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel,
and shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls.
This money that was raised was to be employed in the service of the tabernacle (Ex 30:16); with it they bought