Exodus 30:11-16

English Standard Version

The Census Tax

¹¹ The Lord said to Moses, ^12 (A)“When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give ^(B)a ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them. ¹³ Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel^[a] according to the ^(C)shekel of the sanctuary (the ^(D)shekel is twenty gerahs),^{[b] (E)}half a shekel as an offering to the Lord. ¹⁴ Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the Lord's offering. ¹⁵ The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than ^(F)the half shekel, when you give the Lord's offering to make atonement for your lives. ¹⁶ You shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall ^(G)give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may bring the people of Israel to ^(H)remembrance before the Lord, so as to make atonement for your lives.”