Exodus 30:16

for the service, &c. i.e. for the maintenance of the daily worship in the Tent of Meeting, the morning and evening sacrifices, &c. The reference cannot be to the work of erectingthe sanctuary; for (1) the injunction is general (When thou takest the sum, &c.), not specific (And thou shalt take, &c.); and (2) even supposing it were specific, the first census according to P is the one in Numbers 1, which (v.1 compared with Exodus 40:2; Exodus 40:17) took place a month afterthe sanctuary was completed and put up.

be a memorial, &c. to keep Jehovah in continual remembrance of the ransom which had been paid for their lives: cf. Exodus 28:12; Exodus 28:29; Numbers 10:10; Numbers 31:54.