Exodus Chapter 30 verse 11 Holy Bible
And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying,
read chapter 30 in ASV
And the Lord said to Moses,
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And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
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And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
read chapter 30 in KJV
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
read chapter 30 in WBT
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
read chapter 30 in WEB
And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying,
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Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerses 11-16. - THE RANSOM OF SOULS. The various commands given with respect to the tabernacle and its furniture would necessarily involve a very considerable outlay; and it was important that Moses should receive directions as to the source, or sources, whence this expenditure was to come. In Exodus 25:2-7, one source had been indicated, viz., the voluntary contributions of the people. To this is now added a second source. On occasion of rite numbering of the people - an event which is spoken of as impending (ver. 12) - Moses was told to exact from each of them, as atonement money, the sum of half a shekel of silver. The produce of this tax was to be applied to the work of the sanctuary (ver. 16), and it is found to have formed an important clement in the provision for the cost, since the total amount was above a hundred talents, or, more exactly, 301,775 shekels (Exodus 38:25). The requirement of atonement money seems to have been based on the idea, that formal enrolment in the number of God's faithful people necessarily brought home to every man his unworthiness to belong to that holy company, and so made him feel the need of making atonement in some way or other. The payment of the half-shekel was appointed as the legal mode under those circumstances. It was an acknowledgment of sin, equally binding upon all, and so made equal for all; and it saved from God's vengeance those who, if they had boon too proud to make it, would have been punished by some "plague" or other (ver. 12).
