“Once a year Aaron must make a special sacrifice. He will use the blood of the sin offering to erase the sins of the people. He will do this at the horns of this altar. This day will be called the Day of Atonement, and it will be a very special day for the Lord.”
“Count the Israelites so that you will know how many people there are. Every time this is done, each man must make a payment for himself to the Lord so that nothing terrible will happen to the people.
All the men 20 years old or older were counted. Each man had to pay a tax of 1 beka of silver. (Using the official measure, 1 beka is 1/2 shekel.) There were 603,550 men. So they collected about 7550 pounds of silver.
He said, “Count the Israelites. Count all the men who are 20 years old or older and list them by families. These are the men who are able to serve in the army of Israel.”
“We will accept the responsibility for obeying the commands to take care of God’s Temple. We will give 1/3 shekel of silver each year to support the Temple service to honor our God.
