Exodus 30:13

Summary

Exodus 30:13 specifies the amount to be paid by each person included in a census: half of a shekel, measured according to "the shekel of the holy place," which equals twenty gerahs. This half-shekel is designated as a contribution to Yehovah.

Key words

• ha'over ("[one who] passes over", H5674A) — qal active participle, masculine singular; describes the person performing the action of passing over/through, functioning here as "each one who passes."
• pequdim ("[who] are enrolled", H6485A) — qal passive participle, masculine plural; those who have been counted or registered, the object toward which the previous participle's action is directed.
• machatzit ("[the] half of", H4276) — feminine singular noun in construct state, meaning it must be followed by another noun ("half of X"); appears twice in the verse, each time governing hashekel ("the shekel").
• terumah ("[is] a contribution", H8641) — feminine singular noun, here functioning as a predicate nominative describing what the half-shekel constitutes.
• gerah ("gerahs", H1626) — feminine singular noun (used with the numeral esrim, "twenty") naming the smaller unit by which the shekel is defined.

What the text says

The verse opens with the demonstrative zeh ("this", H2088) pointing forward to the amount about to be specified, followed by yitenu ("they will pay/give", H5414G), a qal imperfect verb indicating an ongoing or repeated future obligation for "every one who passes over" (kol-ha'over) toward "those enrolled" (hapequdim). The grammatical contrast between the active participle 'over (the one doing the passing) and the passive participle pequdim (those who have been counted) marks a distinction between the individual paying and the group into which he is being registered.

The amount is given twice in parallel constructions using machatzit hashekel ("half of the shekel"), first specifying the standard ("by the shekel of the holy place," beshekel haqodesh) and second identifying its purpose. The clause esrim gerah hashekel ("twenty gerahs [is] the shekel") functions as a nominal sentence, defining the value of one shekel in gerahs without any verb "to be," which Biblical Hebrew regularly omits in equational statements. The final clause, machatzit hashekel terumah laYHWH, similarly lacks a copula, stating flatly that the half-shekel is a terumah ("contribution", H8641) laYHWH ("to Yehovah", H3068G plus preposition).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders hapequdim ("those enrolled") with τὴν ἐπίσκεψιν, an abstract noun meaning "the numbering/inspection," differing from the Hebrew's passive participle referring to enrolled persons. The Vulgate diverges further, translating the same phrase as ad nomen ("to the name"), which corresponds to neither the Hebrew nor the LXX. For gerah (H1626), both the LXX (ὀβολοί) and the Vulgate (obolos) use a different unit term ("obolus") rather than transliterating the Hebrew measure name.