Exodus 30:16

Summary

Exodus 30:16 instructs Moses to take the kesef hakippurim ("atonement money") collected from the Israelites and use it for the service of the Tent of Meeting. The verse states that this act will function as a memorial for the Israelites before Yehovah, serving to atone for "your lives."

Key words

• ki.pu.Rim ("atonements", H3725) — masculine plural noun in construct with kesef ("money"), forming "money of the atonements"; the plural form indicates repeated or collective acts of atonement rather than a single event.
• la.kach.Ta ("you will take", H3947G) — qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine singular; continues a chain of instructions begun earlier in the chapter, each verb picking up the narrative thread with "and."
• na.ta.Ta ("you will give", H5414G) — same sequential-perfect pattern as la.kach.Ta, keeping Moses as the singular addressee of the command.
• kha.Per ("make atonement", H3722A) — piel infinitive construct preceded by le-, expressing purpose: "in order to atone." The piel stem carries an intensive or causative nuance beyond the simple qal.
• naf.sho.tei.Khem ("your selves/lives", H5315H + H9026) — feminine plural construct noun nafshot ("selves/lives") with a 2nd masculine plural suffix ("your"), shifting the addressee from the singular Moses to the plural community of Israel.

What the text says

The verse is built on three sequential perfect verbs — la.kach.Ta ("you will take"), na.ta.Ta ("you will give"), and ha.Yah ("it will become") — each introduced by the narrative ve- ("and"). This chain continues instructions given earlier in the chapter, presenting a sequence of actions Moses is to perform with the money collected from the bene Yisra'el ("people of Israel", H1121G + H3478).

The phrase kesef hakippurim uses a construct chain: "money" governs "the atonements," so the silver itself is defined by its association with acts of atonement (plural). The final clause shifts grammatical person: while the main verbs address Moses in the second masculine singular, the closing phrase lekhaper al nafshoteikhem ("to atone for your lives") uses a second masculine plural suffix, addressing the Israelites collectively rather than Moses alone. This grammatical shift signals that although Moses executes the action, the atonement's effect and the memorial function belong to the wider community, positioned lifney Yehovah ("before the face of Yehovah", H6440G + H3068G).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders hakippurim ("the atonements") as τῆς εἰσφορᾶς ("of the contribution"), and the Vulgate similarly uses pecuniam quae collata est ("money which has been collected/contributed"). Both diverge from the Hebrew term's explicit link to atonement, framing the payment instead as a collection or levy. Additionally, where the Hebrew nafshoteikhem carries a second-person plural suffix ("your lives"), the Vulgate's closing clause uses animabus eorum ("their souls"), shifting to third person, while the LXX retains the second person (ὑμῶν, "your"), matching the Hebrew's direct address.