Atonement Money

¹¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, ¹² “When you take a census^(A) of the Israelites to count them, each one must pay the Lord a ransom^(B) for his life at the time he is counted. Then no plague^(C) will come on them when you number them. ¹³ Each one who crosses over to those already counted is to give a half shekel,^[a] according to the sanctuary shekel,^(D) which weighs twenty gerahs. This half shekel is an offering to the Lord. ¹⁴ All who cross over, those twenty years old or more,^(E) are to give an offering to the Lord. ¹⁵ The rich are not to give more than a half shekel and the poor are not to give less^(F) when you make the offering to the Lord to atone for your lives. ¹⁶ Receive the atonement^(G) money from the Israelites and use it for the service of the tent of meeting.^(H) It will be a memorial^(I) for the Israelites before the Lord, making atonement for your lives.”

²⁵ The silver obtained from those of the community who were counted in the census^(A) was 100 talents^[a] and 1,775 shekels,^[b] according to the sanctuary shekel—

²⁶ one beka per person,^(A) that is, half a shekel,^[a] according to the sanctuary shekel,^(B) from everyone who had crossed over to those counted, twenty years old or more,^(C) a total of 603,550 men.^(D)

⁶ Therefore the king summoned Jehoiada the chief priest and said to him, “Why haven’t you required the Levites to bring in from Judah and Jerusalem the tax imposed by Moses the servant of the Lord and by the assembly of Israel for the tent of the covenant law?”^(A)

⁹ A proclamation was then issued in Judah and Jerusalem that they should bring to the Lord the tax that Moses the servant of God had required of Israel in the wilderness.

The Temple Tax

²⁴ After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax^(A) came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”