2Sa 24:1-9, 1Ch 21:1-5, 27:1, 23-24 | TSK | STEP | David, tempted by Satan, forces Joab to number the people. The captains, in nine months and twenty days, bring the muster of thirteen hundred thousand fighting men. David repents, and having three plagues propounded by God, chooses the three days' pestilence. After the death of three score and ten thousand, David by prayer prevents the destruction of Jerusalem. David, by God's direction, purchases Araunah's threshing floor; where having sacrificed, the plague stays. A.M. 2987. B.C. 1017. An. Ex. Is. 474. again. he.This verse, when read without reference to any other part of the word of God, is very difficult to understand, and has been used by those who desire to undermine the justice of God, to shew that he sought occasion to punish--that he incited David to sin; and when he had so incited him, gave to him the dreadful alternative of choosing one of three scourges by which his people were to be cut off. On the face of the passage these thoughts naturally arise, because "the Lord" is the antecedent to the pronoun "he,"--He moved David. But to those who "search the Scriptures," this exceedingly difficult passage receives a wonderful elucidation, By referring to 1 Ch 21:1, the reader will there find that Satan was the mover, and that the Lord most righteously punished David for the display of pride he had manifested. Oh! that Christians, who sometimes have their minds harassed with doubts, would remember the promise, that what they know not now they shall know hereafter; and if no other instance of elucidation than this passage occurred to them to remove their doubts, let this be a means of stirring them up to dig deeper than ever into the inexhaustible mines of the Inspired Word. moved. Go, number.

2 Samuel 24:1-9

1 David, tempted by Satan, forces Joab to number the people.

5 The captains, in nine months and twenty days, bring the muster of thirteen hundred thousand fighting men.

10 David repents, and having three plagues propounded by God, chooses the three days' pestilence.

15 After the death of three score and ten thousand, David by prayer prevents the destruction of Jerusalem.

18 David, by God's direction, purchases Araunah's threshing floor; where having sacrificed, the plague stays.

A.M. 2987. B.C. 1017. An. Ex. Is. 474. again.

he.This verse, when read without reference to any other part of the word of God, is very difficult to understand, and has been used by those who desire to undermine the justice of God, to shew that he sought occasion to punish--that he incited David to sin; and when he had so incited him, gave to him the dreadful alternative of choosing one of three scourges by which his people were to be cut off. On the face of the passage these thoughts naturally arise, because "the Lord" is the antecedent to the pronoun "he,"--He moved David. But to those who "search the Scriptures," this exceedingly difficult passage receives a wonderful elucidation, By referring to 1 Ch 21:1, the reader will there find that Satan was the mover, and that the Lord most righteously punished David for the display of pride he had manifested. Oh! that Christians, who sometimes have their minds harassed with doubts, would remember the promise, that what they know not now they shall know hereafter; and if no other instance of elucidation than this passage occurred to them to remove their doubts, let this be a means of stirring them up to dig deeper than ever into the inexhaustible mines of the Inspired Word.

Jas 1:13,14

moved.

12:11; 16:10; Ge 45:5; 50:20; Ex 7:3; 1Sa 26:19; 1Ki 22:20-23

Eze 14:9; 20:25; Ac 4:28; 2Th 2:11

Go, number.

1Ch 27:23,24

Joab.

2:13; 8:16; 20:23; 23:37

Go now, etc. or, Compass now all.

1Ch 21:2

from Dan.

3:10; 17:11; Jud 20:1

and number.We know not in what the sinfulness of this action consisted. Some think it was a contempt of the promise that the Israelites should be innumerable, and that they ought not to have been numbered without an express command, as in the days of Moses. Others suppose with Josephus that it was a kind of sacrilege, in omitting to collect the half-shekel a-piece for the use of the sanctuary. It however would appear that pride and ambition, and a desire of conquest, induced David to this measure, and rendered it so displeasing to God.

that I may.

De 8:13,14; 2Ch 32:25,26,31; Pr 29:23; Jer 17:5; 2Co 12:7

10:12; 1Ch 21:3,4; Ps 115:14; Pr 14:28; Isa 60:5

the king's.

1Ch 21:4; Ec 8:4

went out.

Ex 1:17; Ac 5:29

Aroer.

De 2:36; Jos 13:9,16; 1Sa 30:28; Isa 17:2

river. or, valley. Jazer.

Nu 32:1,3,35; Isa 16:8,9

Gilead.

Ge 31:21,47,48; Nu 32:1,39

land of Tahtim-hodshi. or, nether land newly inhabited.Dan-jaan.

Jos 19:47; Jud 18:29

Zidon.

Ge 10:15; Jos 11:8; 19:28; Jud 18:28

Tyre.

Jos 19:29

to Beer-sheba.

2; Ge 21:31-33

eight hundred thousand.

1Ch 21:5,6; 27:23,24

1 Chronicles 21:1-5

1 David, tempted by Satan, forces Joab to number the people.

5 The number of the people being brought, David repents of it.

9 David having three plagues propounded by God, chooses the pestilence.

14 After the death of seventy thousand, David by repentance prevents the destruction of Jerusalem.

18 David, by Gad's direction, purchases Ornan's threshing- floor; where having built an altar, God gives a sign of his favour by fire, and stays the plague.

28 David sacrifices there, being restrained from Gibeon by fear of the angel.

A.M. 2987. B.C. 1017. An. Ex. Is. 474. Satan.

2Sa 24:1; 1Ki 22:20-22; Job 1:6-12; 2:1,4-6; Zec 3:1; Mt 4:3

Lu 22:31; Joh 13:2; Ac 5:3; Jas 1:13; Re 12:10

provoked David.

Lu 11:53; Heb 10:24

Joab.

2Sa 24:2-4

Beer-sheba.

Jud 20:1; 1Sa 3:20; 2Sa 3:10; 17:11; 24:15; 1Ki 4:25; 2Ch 30:5

bring.

27:23,24

that I may.

De 8:13-17; 2Ch 32:25,26; Pr 29:23; 2Co 12:7

The Lord.

19:13; Ps 115:14; Pr 14:28; Isa 26:15; 48:19

why will.

Ge 20:9; Ex 32:21; Nu 32:9,10; 1Sa 2:24; 1Ki 14:16

the king's.

Ec 8:4

Wherefore.

Ex 1:17; Da 3:18; Ac 5:29

and went.

2Sa 24:3-8

a thousand.The Syriac has 800,000 as in the parallel passage of Samuel.

27:23; 2Sa 24:9

1 Chronicles 27:1

1 The twelve captains for every several month.

16 The princes of the twelve tribes.

23 The numbering of the people is hindered.

25 David's several officers.

the chief fathers.The patriarchs, chief generals, or generals of brigade. This enumeration is widely different from that of the preceding. In that, we have the order and course of the priests and Levites, in their ecclesiastical ministrations: in this, we have the account of the order of the civil service, what related simply to the political state of the king and kingdom. Twenty-four persons, chosen out of David's worthies, each of whom had a second, were placed over 24,000 men, who all served a month at a time, in turn; and this was the whole of their service during the year, after which they attended to their own affairs. Thus the king had always on foot a regular force of 24,000, who served without expense to him or the state, and were not oppressed by the service, which took up only a twelfth part of their time; and by this plan he could, at any time, bring into the field 12 times 24,000 or 288,000 fighting men, independently of the 12,000 officers, which made in the whole an effective force of 300,000 soldiers; and all these men were prepared, disciplined, and ready at a call, without the smallest expense to the state or the king. These were, properly speaking, the militia of the Israelitish kingdom.

captains.

13:1; Ex 18:25; De 1:15; 1Sa 8:12; Mic 5:2

served.

28:1; 2Ch 17:12-19; 26:11-13

any matter.

1Ki 5:14

month.

1Ki 4:7,27

1 Chronicles 27:23-24

David took not.It seems probable, from this passage, that Joab began, by David's order, to number the children, as well as adults, but was prevented from finishing the account, probably because the plague had begun. The numbering of the effective men might have been deemed a political expedient; but pride and ostentation alone could dictate the numbering of minors and infants, especially as God had pronounced the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, innumerable.

from twenty.

Nu 1:18

he would increase.

Ge 15:5; Heb 11:12

began to number.

21:1-17; 2Sa 24:1-15

was the number put. Heb. ascended the number.