Keluaran 30:16

30:16 You are to receive the atonement money ¹  from the Israelites and give it for the service ²  of the tent of meeting. It will be a memorial ³  for the Israelites before the Lord, to make atonement ⁴  for your lives.”

Nehemia 10:32-33

10:32 We accept responsibility for fulfilling ⁵  the commands to give ⁶  one third of a shekel each year for the work of the temple ⁷  of our God, 10:33 for the loaves of presentation and for the regular grain offerings and regular burnt offerings, for the Sabbaths, for the new moons, for the appointed meetings, for the holy offerings, for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the temple of our God.

Matius 17:24

The Temple Tax

17:24 After ⁸  they arrived in Capernaum, ⁹  the collectors of the temple tax ¹⁰  came to Peter and said, “Your teacher pays the double drachma tax, doesn’t he?”

[30:16]  ¹ tn Heb “the silver of the atonements.” The genitive here is the result (as in “sheep of slaughter”) telling what the money will be used for (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 11, §44).

[30:16]  ² sn The idea of “service” is maintenance and care of the sanctuary and its service, meaning the morning and evening sacrifices and the other elements to be used.

[30:16]  ³ sn S. R. Driver says this is “to keep Jehovah in continual remembrance of the ransom which had been paid for their lives” (Exodus, 334).

[30:16]  ⁴ tn The infinitive could be taken in a couple of ways here. It could be an epexegetical infinitive: “making atonement.” Or it could be the infinitive expressing result: “so that atonement will be made for your lives.”

[10:32]  ⁵ tn Heb “cause to stand on us.”

[10:32]  ⁶ tc The MT reads “to give upon us.” However, the term עָלֵינוּ (’alenu, “upon us”) should probably be deleted, following a few medieval Hebrew MSS, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Vulgate.

[10:32]  ⁷ tn Heb “house” (also in vv. 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39).

[17:24]  ⁸ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[17:24]  ⁹ map For location see Map1 D2; Map2 C3; Map3 B2.

[17:24]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “Collectors of the double drachma.” This is a case of metonymy, where the coin formerly used to pay the tax (the double drachma coin, or δίδραχμον [didracmon]) was put for the tax itself (cf. BDAG 241 s.v.). Even though this coin was no longer in circulation in NT times and other coins were used to pay the tax, the name for the coin was still used to refer to the tax itself.

[17:24]  sn The temple tax refers to the half-shekel tax paid annually by male Jews to support the temple (Exod 30:13-16).