When thou takest ... Moses did so twice, and doubtless observed the law here prescribed. The tax was not levied from women, minors, old men (Numbers 1:42; Numbers 1:45), and the Levites (Numbers 1:47), they being not numbered. It is evident that this taxing implies the taking of a census, for otherwise the impost could not have been collected (cf. Exodus 38:25-26). Since the people were divided into a distinct classification by tribes and families, the means of procuring a muster-roll were at hand; and from Moses' familiar acquaintance with the Egyptian practice of keeping an exact register of the population, there is the strongest probability that the taking of the census preceded the levying of the poll-tax, although it is not related until a subsequent chapter.
Verse 13. Half a shekel - [Septuagint, To heemisu tou didrachmou]. In relating the incident of the exaction of this from our Lord (Matthew 17:24-27), the evangelist represents the collectors as speaking of [the didrachma ] the whole didrachm. This apparent discrepancy is removed by supposing that they had in view, as they naturally would have, the Alexandrian drachm, which was twice the value of the Attic. Half a shekel was the amount of the impost; and in early times the shekel was estimated by a certain weight of silver. But after the return from the Babylonian captivity the Jews were allowed to have coined money (1 Maccabees 15:6).
'The shekels, half shekels, and quarter shekels now found in the cabinets of collectors are to be referred to this period. These growing scarce, and not being coined anymore, it became the custom to estimate the sacred tax as two drachms [the didrachmon exacted of Jesus], a sum actually somewhat larger than the half shekel, as those that have compared together the weights of the existing specimens of each have found' (Josephus, 'Antiquities,' b. 3:, ch. 8:, sec. 2; Trench, from Winer, 'Realworterbuch,' sec. 5:, 'Sekel').
After the shekel of the sanctuary , [ sheqel haqodesh ] - the shekel of holiness, or sacred shekel (cf. 1 Chronicles 26:20; 1 Chronicles 26:26; 1 Chronicles 28:12). Colenso found an objection to the historical character of this history on the use of this phrase, which is represented as having been employed previous to the existence of the tabernacle, But the objection is quite futile; for not only does the original term properly mean 'holiness,' but the phraseology, as used in our translation, occurs in the course of the numerous directions which the Lord gave to Moses respecting the erection and service of the contemplated tabernacle, among which the very term "sanctuary" had actually, been used (Exodus 25:8).
(A shekel is twenty gerahs.) is a brief parenthetical sentence which shows still more the groundlessness of the objection. What was the design of inserting this additional clause, except to explain what the amount of the tax was to be?-evidently implying, that though the shekel in common use was well known, the sanctuary shekel, which was new, would be somewhat different in value, which therefore was exactly stated. Since this statement refers solely to the institution and fixing the amount of the tax, there is no inconsistency in the mention of the sanctuary, though not yet in existence.
Dr. Benisch ('Colenso's Objections Examined,' p. 105) suggests another explanation: 'As we are not to assume that the Israelites in the desert coined money of their own, or had a monetary standard of their own, we must presume that the money they used was Egyptian, and the computations in their trading transactions based upon the Egyptian standard. Being not informed as to that standard, we are left to conjectures, and one of these, fully agreeing with what we see to this day among many nations, is, that there were two currencies-a depreciated one, probably consisting of worn-out coins, or containing more alloy than was legal, and used among the people in their everyday transactions; and the standard money, containing the full weight of the precious metal, as prescribed by law, in which the dues to temples, and perhaps the taxes, had to be paid. This undepreciated currency was, in contradistinction to the other, called 'the holy shekel;' and it was in this undepreciated coin that the people were commanded to pay their dues for the service of the tabernacle, then about to be erected.'
In all subsequent times this impost was paid by the Jewish people, and sent by them from all countries of their dispersion to the temple at Jerusalem (Josephus, 'Antiquities,' b. 18:, ch. 9:, sec. 1; Philo., vol. 2:, p. 578; Cicero, 'Pro. L. Flacco,' ). Nay, it was continued even after the destruction of Jerusalem; for all Jews were commanded, by an imperial edict of Vespasian, to send the didrachm to the capital (Josephus, 'Jewish War,' b. 7:, ch. 6:, sec. 6).
Verse 15. To make an atonement for your souls - to propitiate for their lives; to free from guilt.
Verse 16. Atonement money , [ kecep hakipuriym ] - price of redemption (cf. Exodus 30:12, "every man a ransom for his soul" - i:e., life). Assuming the shekel of the sanctuary to be about half-an-ounce troy, though nothing certain is known about it, the sum payable by each individual was two shillings and fourpence. This was not a voluntary contribution, but a ransom for the soul, or lives of the people. It was required from all classes alike; and a refusal to pay implied a wilful exclusion from the privileges of the sanctuary, as well as exposure to divine judgments. It was probably the same impost that was exacted from our Lord (Matthew 17:24-27); and it was usually devoted to repairs and other purposes connected with the services of the sanctuary.