Matthew Poole and continuators on Exodus 30:12

12 When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the LORD, when thou numbrest them , that there be no plague amongst them, when thou numbrest them.

A certain price for the redemption of their lives: whereby they acknowledged the right and power which God had over their lives, and that they had forfeited them by their sins, and that it was Gods mercy to continue their lives to them.

To wit, upon any just occasion, either now in the Wilderness, or afterward: It may seem that this payment was neither to be made at this time onely, as some would have it, nor yet every year, as Iosephus and others affirm, because it is not said to be a perpetual statute, as other things of constant observance are, but upon any eminent occasions, when the service of the Tabernacle (which is the end and use of this collection) or Temple required it, as may be gathered from 2 King. 12. 4. compared with 2 Chron. 24. 6. Compare Neh. 10. 32. Matth. 17. 24. And as now it was imployed in the building of the Tabernacle, so afterwards it might be laid out upon the repairs or other services of it.

Marginal references: chap. 38. 25. Numb. 1. 2, 5. and 25. 2.; Heb. them that are to be numbred. See Numb. 31. 50.