What Does Exodus 30:14 Mean in the King James?
Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the LORD.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The offering is a lifted portion, so the count becomes more than a tally: each counted person raises a contribution to the LORD.
THE MEANING
Here, being counted includes giving: each person in the named group contributes an offering to the LORD. The word for offering, תְּרוּמָה (terumah), carries the image of a portion lifted up, making each person’s contribution visible within a shared act.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the idea that the count is only bookkeeping: the verse joins being numbered to contributing.
THE ROOT
תְּרוּמַת
terumat
GROWS FROM
רוּם
rum
To rise, be high, or raise.
“offering” in this verse is terumat. Terumah names a contribution as something lifted from the whole. The counted person is not only entered in a tally; their contribution becomes the visible form of participation before the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
herim: Lifted, raised.
הֵרִים
This verb makes the image behind terumah concrete: an offering is a portion lifted from what is held.
ram: High, elevated.
רָם
The same root carries an upward sense, showing why the offering is named as something raised to the LORD.
marom: Height, high place.
מָרוֹם
This branch keeps the root’s sense of elevation in view: the contribution is more than a generic transfer.
THE PATTERN
Being part of the LORD’s gathered people takes material form in what each person brings.
Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee.Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.THE THREAD
The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the LORD, to make an atonement for your souls.This repeats תְּרוּמָה (terumah), the lifted contribution, and specifies that wealth does not change its measure. It makes “every one” concrete: each counted person contributes on the same terms.
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