Exodus 38:26

26 [It was] a bekah for the individual, the half shekel according to the sanctuary shekel, for {everyone who was counted}, from {twenty years old} and above, for six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty.

Exodus 38:26 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 38:26

A bekah for every man, [that is], half a shekel, after the
shekel of the sanctuary
A half shekel was called a "bekah", from (eqb) , "bakah", to divide; because it was a shekel divided into two parts:

for everyone that went to be numbered, from twenty years and
upwards;
in order to give a ransom, and make an atonement for their souls, as was ordered ( Exodus 30:12-15 )

for six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and
fifty [men];
so that from the time of their coming out of Egypt, which was now about six months ago, there was an increase of 3550 of the above age; see ( Exodus 12:37 ) .

Exodus 38:26 In-Context

24 And all the gold used for the work, in the work of the sanctuary, it was the gold of the wave offering--twenty-nine talents and seven hundred and thirty shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel.

25 And the silver recorded from the community [was] a hundred talents and a thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel.

26 [It was] a bekah for the individual, the half shekel according to the sanctuary shekel, for {everyone who was counted}, from {twenty years old} and above, for six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty.

27 And it was one hundred talents of the silver to cast the bases of the sanctuary and the bases of the curtain--one hundred bases for one hundred talents of silver, a talent for [each] base.

28 And [from] the thousand seven hundred and seventy-five [shekels] he made hooks for the pillars, and he overlaid their tops, and he made bands [for] them.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "all of the going over to the being counted"
• [b]. Literally "a son of twenty years"