Exodus 38:26

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.

Or, half a shekel.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

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.

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.

(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).

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

בקע (from בָּקַע to split) is the name given to a weight of half a shekel.

לשש מאות אלף וגו׳ FOR SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND [AND THREE THOUSAND etc.] — Thus were the Israelites in number, and thus did their number amount to after the Tabernacle was set up, as it is stated in the Book of Numbers (ch. II), and at this time, also, when they contributed toward the Tabernacle they were just as many (cf. Rashi on Exodus 30:16). The half-shekels of 600,000 amount to a hundred talents, each talents consisting of three thousand shekels (cf. v. 25). How is this? 600,000 half-shekels are 300,000 whole shekels, making one hundred talents and the remaining 3550 half-shekels make 1775 whole shekels, as stated in the text.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.