“When you take a census of the Israelites, each man must pay the Lord to buy back his life when he's counted. Then they won't suffer from the plague when they're counted.
This represents a beka per person, or half a shekel (using the sanctuary shekel standard) from everyone twenty years of age or older who had been censused, a total of 603,550 men.
They had all the Israelites gather together on the first day of the second month, and recorded the people's genealogy according to their tribe and family, and counted up the names of all those aged twenty or older,
The descendants of Simeon, men aged twenty or over, were recorded by name according to the genealogical records of their tribe and families. All those registered who could serve in the army