Albert Barnes Commentary Exodus 30:11-16

"And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel, according to those that are numbered of them, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto Jehovah, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them. This they shall give, every one that passeth over unto them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary; (the shekel is twenty gerahs;) half a shekel for an offering to Jehovah. Every one that passeth over unto them that are numbered, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the offering of Jehovah. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when they give the offering of Jehovah, to make atonement for your souls. And thou shalt take the atonement money from the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the tent of meeting; that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel before Jehovah, to make atonement for your souls." — Exodus 30:11-16 (ASV)

The Ransom of Souls. - [Exodus 38:25–28]. On comparing these words with those of [Numbers 1:1–3], we may perhaps infer that the first passage relates to a mere counting of the adult Israelites at the time when the money was taken from each, and that what the latter passage enjoins was a formal enrolment of them according to their genealogies and their order of military service.

A ransom for his soul - What the sincere worshipper thus paid was at once the fruit and the sign of his faith in the goodness of Yahweh, who had redeemed him and brought him into the covenant. Hence, the payment is rightly called a ransom inasmuch as it involved a personal appropriation of the fact of his redemption. On the word soul, see [Leviticus 17:11].

That there be no plague - i. e. that they might not incur punishment for the neglect and contempt of spiritual privileges. Compare [Exodus 28:35]; [1 Corinthians 11:27–30]; and the exhortation in our communion Service.

[Exodus 30:13]

Half a shekel - The probable weight of silver in the half-shekel would now be worth about 1 shilling, 3 1/2d. (Compare [Genesis 23:16]. See [Exodus 38:24] note.) Gerah is, literally, a bean, probably the bean of the carob or locust-tree. It was used as the name of a small weight, as our word grain came into use from a grain of wheat.

[Exodus 30:15]

Every Israelite stood in one and the same relation to Yahweh. See [Exodus 30:11–12].

[Exodus 30:16]

tabernacle of the congregation - tent of meeting, here and in [Exodus 30:18], [Exodus 30:20],

A memorial unto the children of Israel - The silver used in the tabernacle was a memorial to remind each man of his position before the Lord, as one of the covenanted people.