a beka a head (that is, half a shekel, by the shekel of the sanctuary), for everyone who was listed in the records, from twenty years old and upward, for 603,550 men.
Gold came freely, silver by tax; both ways serve God's house if done without partiality. The workers were faithful, the people liberal, and their example in giving and honest dealing ought to move us yet. The foundation itself was silver, a fit emblem that the Lord's work rests on what is weighed, measured, and accounted for.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 38:21-31
And of the thousand seven hundred seventy five shekels,.... Which remained of the sum collected, Exo 38:25 after the silver sockets were cast: he made hooks for the pillars: on each side of the court of the tabernacle on which the hangings were hung; these hooks, as Kimchi says (t), were in the form of the letter and were made to hang the sacrifices upon...
A bekah for every man - The Hebrew word בקי beka, from בקי baka, to divide, separate into two, seems to signify, not a particular coin, but a shekel broken or cut in two; so, anciently, our farthing was a penny divided in the midst and then subdivided, so that each division contained the fourth part of the penny; hence its name fourthing or fourthling, since corrupted into farthing.