³² We also lay on ourselves the obligation to charge ourselves yearly one-third of a shekel for the service of the house of our God:^(A)

Jesus and the Temple Tax

²⁴ When they reached Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax came to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the temple tax?”^{(A) 25} He said, “Yes, he does.” And when he came home, Jesus spoke of it first, asking, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their children or from others?”^{(B) 26} When Peter^[a] said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the children are free. ²⁷ However, so that we do not give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook; take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a coin; take that and give it to them for you and me.”^(C)

The Half Shekel for the Sanctuary

¹¹ The Lord spoke to Moses, ¹² “When you take a census of the Israelites to register them, at registration all of them shall give a ransom for their lives to the Lord, so that no plague may come upon them for being registered.^{(A) 13} This is what each one who is registered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to the Lord.^{(B) 14} Each one who is registered, from twenty years old and up, shall give the Lord’s offering. ¹⁵ The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than the half shekel, when you bring this offering to the Lord to make atonement for your lives.^{(C) 16} You shall take the atonement money from the Israelites and shall designate it for the service of the tent of meeting; before the Lord it will be a reminder to the Israelites of the ransom given for your lives.”^(D)

²² and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will surely give one-tenth to you.”^(A)

¹² For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.^(A)