TRIBUTE
(a) TIME OF THE JUDGES.
Under the Judges there was no army or court. Tithes and offerings were given for the maintenance of the Tabernacle and the priesthood. The Levites enjoyed the lands that had been given to them.
(b) TIME of the MONARCHY.
Under the Monarchy, State resources came from various sources:
(A) Taxes in kind (1 Kings 4:7-28; cf. Am. 7:1).
(B) Special contributions upon the accession of a sovereign (1 Sam. 10:27) or in times of war (1 Sam. 16:20; 17:18).
(C) Tributes from defeated peoples (2 Sam. 8:6, 14; 1 Kings 10:15; 2 Kings 3:4; Judges 1:28, 30), and levies (1 Kings 9:20 , twenty-one). When the Israelites became subject to a foreign prince, they were forced to pay tribute and also support the expenses of their own government.
(D) Taxes on business operations (1 Kings 10:15).
David imposed no exactions, not even in kind. He divided the men capable of carrying weapons into twelve divisions of twenty-four thousand men each. Each of them had to give one month a year of military service (1 Chron. 27:1).
Solomon burdened the people with many taxes (1 Kings 12:4). This was the external cause of the national schism. Exemption from taxes was a reward (1 Sam. 17:25; Ant. 17:2, 1).
(b) PERSIAN PERIOD.
In Persian times, Darius Hystaspes forced the satraps of each province to pay a fixed sum to the royal treasury (Herodotus 3:89). The people had to maintain the governor’s house. Judah gave him daily provisions and forty shekels of silver (Neh. 5:14, 15; Ezra 4:13, 20).
The priests, Levites, and Nethinim were exempt from these taxes, while in order to pay them, many Israelites were forced to mortgage their fields and vineyards (Neh. 5:4; 9:37).
In Hellenistic times, Egyptian and Syrian rulers subjected the Jews to heavy burdens, even appropriating a portion of the tithes paid to the Temple in Jerusalem (Ant. 12:3, 3; 12:4, 1-5; 1 Mac. 10:29-31; 11:34, 35; 13:37, 39).
(c) ROMAN PERIOD.
In 63 BC, the Romans imposed a tribute on the Jews that soon amounted to more than ten thousand talents (Ant. 14:4, 4 and 5). Julius Caesar increased it (Ant. 10:5 and 6). Herod the Great taxed goods (Ant. 15:9, 1; 17:8, 4).
Under the procurators, collection was done by lease (see PUBLICAN). The Jews paid the Romans the following exactions:
(A) Land tax: could be paid in kind or with money.
(B) Capitation (Mt. 22:17), which also included a tax on wealth.
(C) Taxes on export and import, which were collected in maritime cities and at city gates. The inhabitants of Jerusalem paid a settlement tax (Ant. 19:6, 3).
Upon returning from exile, every Israelite over the age of twenty was forced to pay half a shekel annually for the Temple service (Mt. 17:24). The collectors toured the cities on certain dates. Diaspora Jews made this payment in specific places.
After the destruction of Jerusalem, Vespasian ordered that all Jews dispersed throughout the Roman Empire send to Rome, to Jupiter Capitolinus, the half shekel (two drachmas) that they had until then paid to the Temple (Wars 7:6, 6).