Exodus 30:11-16
English Standard Version
The Census Tax
11 The Lord said to Moses, 12 (A)“When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give (B)a ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them. 13 Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel[a] according to the (C)shekel of the sanctuary (the (D)shekel is twenty gerahs),[b] (E)half a shekel as an offering to the Lord. 14 Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the Lord's offering. 15 The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than (F)the half shekel, when you give the Lord's offering to make atonement for your lives. 16 You shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall (G)give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may bring the people of Israel to (H)remembrance before the Lord, so as to make atonement for your lives.”
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Exodus 30:13 A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams
- Exodus 30:13 A gerah was about 1/50 ounce or 0.6 gram
Exodus 30:11-16
New Living Translation
Money for the Tabernacle
11 Then the Lord said to Moses, 12 “Whenever you take a census of the people of Israel, each man who is counted must pay a ransom for himself to the Lord. Then no plague will strike the people as you count them. 13 Each person who is counted must give a small piece of silver as a sacred offering to the Lord. (This payment is half a shekel,[a] based on the sanctuary shekel, which equals twenty gerahs.) 14 All who have reached their twentieth birthday must give this sacred offering to the Lord. 15 When this offering is given to the Lord to purify your lives, making you right with him,[b] the rich must not give more than the specified amount, and the poor must not give less. 16 Receive this ransom money from the Israelites, and use it for the care of the Tabernacle.[c] It will bring the Israelites to the Lord’s attention, and it will purify your lives.”
Read full chapterThe Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
