And thou shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the LORD, to make an atonement for your souls.

And the money received which was contributed by the children of Israel, thou shalt deliver unto the uses of the tabernacle of the testimony, that it may be a memorial of them before the Lord, and he may be merciful to their souls.

And thou shalt take the atonement-money of the children of Israel, and devote it to the service of the tent of meeting; and it shall be a memorial to the children of Israel before Jehovah, to make atonement for your souls.

'And thou hast taken the atonement-money from the sons of Israel, and hast given it for the service of the tent of meeting; and it hath been to the sons of Israel for a memorial before Jehovah, to make atonement for your souls.'

And you are to take this money from the children of Israel to be used for the work of the Tent of meeting, to keep the memory of the children of Israel before the Lord and to be the price of your lives.

And the money received, which was collected from the sons of Israel, you shall deliver for the uses of the tabernacle of the testimony, so that it may be a memorial of them before the Lord, and he may act favorably toward their souls."

Accipiesque pecuniam expiationum a filiis Israel, et dabis eam in opus tabernaculi testimonii: eritque filiis Israel in memoriale coram Jehova, ad expiandas animas vestras.

tabernacle of the congregation - tent of meeting, here and in Exodus 30:18, Exodus 30:20,
A memorial unto the children of Israel - The silver used in the tabernacle was a memorial to remind each man of his position before the Lord, as one of the covenanted people.

And thou shall take the atonement money of the children of Israel,.... The half shekel, the ransom of their souls:
and shall appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; for the building of the tabernacle, for the repairs of it, and for the sacrifices offered in it; particularly we find that this first collection this way was appropriated to the silver sockets of the sanctuary, and the vail, for the silver hooks, and for the pillars, Exodus 38:27,
that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls; to put them in mind that they were sinners, that their lives were forfeited, that a ransom price was given and accepted of God, that hereby atonement, in a typical sense, was made for them; and this was before the Lord, as a token of their gratitude to him, and of their acknowledgment of the favour.

This atonement-money Moses was to appropriate to the work of the sanctuary (cf. Exodus 38:25-28, where the amount and appropriation are reported). Through this appropriation it became "a memorial to the children of Israel before the Lord to expiate their souls," i.e., a permanent reminder of their expiation before the Lord, who would henceforth treat them as reconciled because of this payment. It was no ordinary tribute, therefore, which Israel was to pay to Jehovah as its King, but an act demanded by the holiness of the theocratic covenant. As an expiation for souls, it pointed to the unholiness of Israel's nature, and reminded the people continually, that by nature it was alienated from God, and could only remain in covenant with the Lord and live in His kingdom on the ground of His grace, which covered its sin. It was not till this sinful nature had been sanctified by a perfect atonement, and servitude under the law had been glorified and fully transformed into that sonship to which Israel was called as the first-born son of Jehovah, that as children of the kingdom they had no longer to pay this atonement-money for their souls (Matthew 17:25-26). - According to Numbers 1:1, Numbers 1:18, as compared with Exodus 40:17, the census of the nation was not taken till a month after the building of the tabernacle was completed, and yet the atonement-money to be paid at the taking of the census was to be appropriated to the purpose of the building, and must therefore have been paid before. This apparent discrepancy may be reconciled by the simple assumption, that immediately after the command of God had been issued respecting the building of the tabernacle and the contributions which the people were to make for the purpose, the numbering of the males was commenced and the atonement-money collected from the different individuals, that the tabernacle was then built and the whole ceremonial instituted, and that, after all this had been done, the whole nation was enrolled according to its tribes, fathers' houses, and families, on the basis of this provisional numbering, and thus the census was completed. For this reason the census gave exactly the same number of males as the numbering (cf. Exodus 38:26 and Numbers 1:46), although the one had been carried out nine months before the other.