The Sum Total Of What Was Used In Making The Dwellingplace (Exodus 38:21-31).
It will be noted that this is now dealt with commencing with the most valuable and going down to the least valuable. The gold was for the items in the inner Sanctuary, the silver for the sockets of the inner Sanctuary and the brazen copper for the court of the Dwellingplace and the things within it. The presumed intention is to outline the total amount of ‘precious metals' use in the making of the Dwellingplace.
‘This is the sum of the things for the Dwellingplace, even the Dwellingplace of the Testimony, as they were counted, according to the commandment of Moses, for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest, and Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that Yahweh commanded Moses. And with him was Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver, and a skilful workman, and an embroiderer in bluey-purple, and in purpley-red, and in scarlet, and in fine linen '
The sum total of what was used is about to be detailed, ‘the sum of things for the Dwellingplace'. Note the emphasis at this stage when all was new on the fact that the Dwellingplace will house the Testimony. Note also that the materials were under the command of Moses, and that Ithamar dispensed them. Possibly he was the one among the sons of Aaron who had the necessary skills. He then passed the materials to the Levites, who no doubt watched over the work, and through them to the overseers, Bezalel and Oholiab and their helpers. The Levites had seemingly already gained a special position due to their ‘faithfulness' at the time of the molten calf.
We are then informed that the skilled overseers had done all that Yahweh had commanded Moses. Bezalel had been in overall charge. Oholiab's speciality had been in engraving, embroidering and weaving.
‘All the gold that was used for the work in all the work of the sanctuary, even the gold of the offering, was twenty nine talents and seven hundred and thirty shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary. And the silver of those who were numbered of the congregation was a hundred talents and one thousand seven hundred and seventy five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary. There was a beka a head, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for every one who passed over to those who were numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty men.'
We need to consider these verses carefully for if we do not we will misinterpret their input. Firstly we must recognise that what is being described is ‘the sum of the things for the Tabernacle --- as they were assessed --- by the hand of Ithamar' (Exodus 38:21). Then we are given the assessments for gold (Exodus 38:24), silver (Exodus 38:25) and brazen copper (Exodus 38:29) in that order. So the assessments are the totals of all that was collected. Thus while at a casual reading it appears as if the silver was that collected at a numbering of the people (in accordance with Exodus 30:11-16), Exodus 35:5; Exodus 35:24 make quite clear that silver was also collected as a freewill offering, which must also be seen as included in the amounts stated, which are the sum total available for use.
We are first given the full total of the gold. It was 29 talents and seven hundred and thirty shekels (Exodus 38:24), a huge amount considering their situation even though they had ‘spoiled the Egyptians' (Exodus 12:36). On the other hand the Egyptians might well have stripped themselves of their gold in order to get rid of the Israelites whose God had caused such problems. This was presumably all given by freewill offerings. Then we are told what the amount of silver collected was.
“And the silver of those who were numbered of the congregation was a hundred talents and one thousand seven hundred and seventy five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary. There was a beka a head, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for every one who passed over to those who were numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty men.”
Firstly we note the description, ‘the silver of those who were numbered of the congregation.' So the silver being described was given by ‘those who were numbered of the congregation'. They were its source. But it is extremely unlikely, indeed in view of the descriptions, impossible, that the freewill offerings (Exodus 35:5; Exodus 35:24) would be ignored here, for the whole purpose of the narrative is to show how much gold, silver and bronze went into the Sanctuary, and going by the amount of gold collected the silver by freewill offerings would presumably be even greater. That being so the 100 talents and 1,775 shekels must be seen as the total of all that was collected, including both that collected in the numbering and that collected by the freewill offerings (all collected from the males of the families, ‘those who were numbered', but not necessarily limited per head). But to suggest that the freewill offerings of silver would be ignored when the freewill offerings of the gold and brazen copper were assessed is quite frankly incredible.
The note that follows must therefore be seen in that light. We must ask, what exactly is it saying? And in answer we would suggest that it is basically declaring that the total amount of silver collected and in use was the equivalent of what would have been collected if the numbering of men had amounted to 603,550 at half a shekel per head. It is looking at a theoretical situation and saying that the silver collected was so huge an amount that had it been collected in a census that is the number of men who would have been required to contribute it.
It may indeed be that there was no numbering, and that the whole is theoretical, that it is saying ‘had they been numbered this would have been the number of men required to make up all this silver'. It may in fact all have been collected in freewill offerings, and that Moses was so impressed by the amount collected that, in the light of Exodus 30:11-16, he was simply trying to bring out its impressiveness. He may simply have been seeing in his mind's eye such a numbering and be describing it in order to bring out the large amount of silver used. But it seems more probable that there was a numbering which contributed towards the total amount of silver received.
“ For every one who passed over to those who were numbered.” In the numbering the men were seen as having passed from the group waiting to be numbered to the group that had been numbered. This suggests a knowledge of the numbering of smaller groups. But there is nowhere else in Exodus where there is any suggestion that such a numbering ever actually took place. The first one is in Numbers 1. Thus their passing over may simply be in Moses' mind as a theoretical exercise.
Alternately there may have been such a numbering at the time of the freewill offering, with the half shekels collected, with those then added to those gathered in the freewill offerings. But in the end it is the total amount of silver that is being emphasised, not the number of men, so that the one main point from it is that the Tabernacle contained so much silver that it was sufficient to ‘redeem' 603,550 men. It is saying that that is the theoretical amount of men that the silver represented in the Dwellingplace indicated. The result is that that would therefore probably be seen as the number of the ‘ideal' Israel. This probably explains why that is the number to which Numbers 1 works. It is a number obtained by using other symbolic numbers. See our commentary on that chapter. That being so, the phrase ‘and the silver of those who were numbered of the congregation was --' may be seen as announcing the whole of the silver gathered from the men who were numbered, not just that gathered as a half shekel ransom.
Others take a different view and therefore have to suggest that the freewill offerings were ignored. But in our view that is to ignore the clear intention of the whole passage, which was not about numbering but about how much was collected.
With regard to gold it was plentiful in Egypt, being imported from the parts of North Africa to their south, a rich gold producing area. When the Israelites left Egypt they brought with them much of the silver and gold in Goshen (Exodus 12:35), and possibly from wider afield, having been given it by Egyptians and others keen to see them gone.
The Use of the Silver.
‘And the hundred talents of silver were for casting the sockets of the sanctuary, and the sockets of the veil; a hundred sockets for the hundred talents, a talent for a socket. And of the thousand seven hundred seventy and five shekels he made hooks for the pillars, and overlaid their capitals, and made connecting rods (or fillets) for them.
Of the silver the talents were used for making the sockets for the Sanctuary itself. There were one hundred of them (40 + 40 + 16 + 4). The remaining silver items were made from the one thousand, seven hundred and seventy five shekels of silver.
The Use of the Brazen Copper.
‘And the brazen copper of the offering was seventy talents, and two thousand and four hundred shekels. And with that he made the sockets to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and the brazen copper altar, and the brazen copper grating for it, and all the vessels of the altar, and the sockets of the court round about, and the sockets of the gate of the court, and all the pegs of the Dwellingplace, and all the pegs of the court round about.'
The brazen copper of the offering is that brazen copper which was brought by the people in their free-will offering towards the Dwellingplace (35:24). The main use made of it is here described. With it was made the entrance sockets, the altar of burnt offering with its grating and vessels, the sockets for the pillars of the screen for the outer court and for the entrance, and all the tent pegs.