The Construction Of The TabernacleSample

THE COLLECTION OF THE SILVER

The silver was obtained from every Israelite over twenty who was redeemed out of Egypt, for they had to pay half a shekel of silver to the Lord as ransom.

• “When you take the census of the children of Israel for their number, then every man shall give a ransom for himself to the Lord, when you number them, that there may be no plague among them when you number them.  This is what everyone among those who are numbered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (a shekel is twenty gerahs). The half-shekel shall be an offering to the Lord.  Everyone included among those who are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering to the Lord.  The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when you give an offering to the Lord, to make atonement for yourselves.  And  you shall take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shall appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of meeting, that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel before the Lord, to make atonement for yourselves” (Exod. 30:12-16).


• So all who were numbered of the children of Israel, by their fathers’ houses, from twenty years old and above, all who were able to go to war in Israel, all who were numbered were six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty. But the Levites were not numbered among them by their fathers’ tribe (Num. 1:45-47). And the reason for that? The answer is found in Numbers 1:48-51.

There was therefore 603,550 half shekels for producing the silver bases. Every talent weighed 6,000 shekels of silver. So there was one thousand seven hundred and seventy five shekels (about 350 kg of silver) left over (Exod. 38:25). The silver that was left over was used for the silver hooks, silver bands and silver tops of the posts of the fence (Exod. 38:27, 28; 27:9-17).

All the silver was therefore used for the purpose of keeping the tabernacle in position; nothing was wasted or left over. The entire tabernacle is held in position by the atonement money that the Israelite men had to pay.