Exodus 25:2

“Tell the Israelites to take ¹  an offering ²  for me; from every person motivated by a willing ³  heart you ⁴  are to receive my offering.

Ex 35:5-29; Ex 35:5,21; Nu 7:3-88; Nu 18:24; De 16:16,17; Jud 5:9; 1Ch 29:1-30; 1Ch 29:3,5,9,14,17; Ezr 1:6; Ezr 2:68; Ezr 3:5; Ezr 7:16; Ne 11:2; Ps 110:3; 2Co 8:12; 2Co 9:7

¹ tn The verb is וְיִקְחוּ (vÿyiqkhu), the Qal imperfect or jussive with vav; after the imperative “speak” this verb indicates the purpose or result: “speak…that they may take” and continues with the force of a command.

² tn The “offering” (תְּרוּמָה, tÿrumah) is perhaps better understood as a contribution since it was a freewill offering. There is some question about the etymology of the word. The traditional meaning of “heave-offering” derives from the idea of “elevation,” a root meaning “to be high” lying behind the word. B. Jacob says it is something sorted out of a mass of material and designated for a higher purpose (Exodus, 765). S. R. Driver (Exodus, 263) corrects the idea of “heave-offering” by relating the root to the Hiphil form of that root, herim, “to lift” or “take off.” He suggests the noun means “what is taken off” from a larger mass and so designated for sacred purposes. The LXX has “something taken off.”

³ tn The verb יִדְּבֶנּוּ (yiddÿvennu) is related to the word for the “freewill offering” (נְדָבָה, nÿdavah). The verb is used of volunteering for military campaigns (Judg 5:2, 9) and the willing offerings for both the first and second temples (see 1 Chr 29:5, 6, 9, 14, 17).

⁴ tn The pronoun is plural.