Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 30:16
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.
16. for the service, &c.] i.e. for the maintenance of the daily worship in the Tent of Meeting, the morning and evening sacrifices, &c. The reference cannot be to the work of erecting the sanctuary; for (1) the injunction is general ( When thou takest the sum, &c.), not specific ( And thou shalt take, &c.); and (2) even supposing it were specific, the first census according to P is the one in Numbers 1, which ( v. 1 compared with Exo 40:2; Exo 40:17) took place a month after the sanctuary was completed and put up.
be a memorial, &c.] to keep Jehovah in continual remembrance of the ransom which had been paid for their lives: cf. Exo 28:12; Exo 28:29, Num 10:10; Num 31:54.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For the service of the tabernacle; for the building and furniture of it, and the maintenance of Gods worship in it.
That it may be a memorial; either to the people, who hereby profess God to be their Lord and Owner, and themselves his subjects and tributaries; or to God, who hereby takes occasion to remember them, and to own them for his people.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And thou shall take the atonement money of the children of Israel,…. The half shekel, the ransom of their souls:
and shall appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; for the building of the tabernacle, for the repairs of it, and for the sacrifices offered in it; particularly we find that this first collection this way was appropriated to the silver sockets of the sanctuary, and the vail, for the silver hooks, and for the pillars, Ex 38:27:
that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls; to put them in mind that they were sinners, that their lives were forfeited, that a ransom price was given and accepted of God, that hereby atonement, in a typical sense, was made for them; and this was before the Lord, as a token of their gratitude to him, and of their acknowledgment of the favour.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(16) Thou shalt . . . appoint it for the service of the tabernacle.It appears, by Exo. 38:27-28, that the silver collected by this tax, which amounted to above a hundred talents, was employed for making the sockets which supported the boards of the tabernacle (Exo. 26:19-25), and those of the pillars of the vail (Exo. 26:32), together with the hooks for the pillars of the court, their capitals, and connecting rods. Thus, so long as the tabernacle stood, the precious metal paid as ransom remained in the sight of the people, and was a continual memorial, or reminder, to them of the position into which they were brought by covenant with God.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16. A memorial A constant reminder of their being covered and shielded from plague by complying with this command .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Reader! while those verses serve to teach us how clean the feet and hands of those ought to be who stand to minister before the Lord, think, and think with holy joy, what our privileges are who have a fountain always open for sin and for uncleanness. Zec 13:1 . Lord grant that I may wash in it, and be clean. Jas 4:8 . David perhaps had an eye to this cleansing when he penned Psa 26:6 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 30:16 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.
Ver. 16. That it may be a memorial. ] A perpetual poll money, in token of homage and subjection to the Almighty.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
tabernacle = tent. Hebrew. ‘ohel. App-40.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
appoint: Exo 38:25-31, Neh 10:32, Neh 10:33
a memorial: Exo 12:14, Num 16:40, Luk 22:19
Reciprocal: Exo 38:26 – bekah Lev 2:2 – the memorial Lev 14:29 – General Num 10:10 – a memorial Num 31:50 – an atonement Num 31:54 – a memorial Jos 4:7 – memorial