Exod. xxx. 30.CAPITATION of the Jews. Moses ordained, that every Israelite should pay by the head half a shekel for his Soul, or for his Redemption, that there might be no plague among the people when they were numbred. And many learned Interpreters are of opinion, that this law was designed by Moses to take place, as often as the people were numbred; and that David having failed in the payment of the half-shekel per Head, when he appointed an enquiry to be made into the number of his subjects, God therefore punished this neglect with the death of so many of them. But the generality maintain, that Moses here laid this tax upon all the people, payable every year, to provide for the expences of keeping up the Tabernacle, for the sacrifices, wood, oil, wine, flour, habits, and subsistence of the Priests and Levites. In our Saviour’s time this Tribute was paid very exactly to the Temple. See hereafter Didrachma.
Nehem. x. 32.The Israelites at their return from the Captivity of Babylon obliged themselves to pay one third part of a Shekel to the Temple, they in all probability not being in a condition at that time, by reason of their poverty, to do more. After the destruction of the Temple by the Romans1, the Jews were compell’d to pay the half Shekel to the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, which had been customarily given to the Temple of Jerusalem. They levied it throughout all the Provinces where any of them were settled, and they had Procurators who carried it to Jerusalem. Cicero remarks2, that Flaccus would not suffer that to be conveyed thither which was collected among the Jews in Italy, and Titus speaking to the Jews3, reproaches them with their ingratitude, for employing this tax against their Benefactors, and in carrying on the War with the Romans, which the Emperors of Rome had by a particular indulgence permitted them to levy.
The Rabbins observe, that even the Priests and all the Jews in general, except Women, Children under thirteen years of age, and Slaves, were liable to pay the half Shekel. The Collectors demanded it in the beginning of the month Nisan, but used no compulsion with any one till the Feast of the Passover: then they either constrained those to pay, who had not hitherto complied with the demand, or took security from them. The half Shekel was worth about eighteen pence of our money. Moses says, that it was paid according to the Measure of the Sanctuary, that is to say, according to the justest Measure, the standard whereof was kept in the Temple. See hereafter See 1 Chr. xxiii. 29.Weights of the Sanctuary.
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