A bekah for every man, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for every one that went to be numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty 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.