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. Genesis 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 Exodus 25:2; Exodus 35:5; Exodus 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 (Matthew 17:24-27).
From twenty years old and upward. — See Note on Exodus 30:14.
Six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty. — The identity of this number with that which is given in Numbers 1:46, as arrived at “in the second year, on the first day of the second month” (Numbers 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 Numbers 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.)