2 Samuel 24

1-4 5-9 10-17 18-25

1-4

The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, for what it is not said but it could have been a number of things, Absalom’s revolt, Sheba’s revolt, etc. This was also after the three years of famine for Saul’s treatment of the Gibeonites.

This passage is also told in 1 Chronicles 21 and in 1 Chronicles it says that Satan stood against Israel and incited David into the census.

God was angry and he allowed Satan to tempt David into sin, it was not God nor even Satan, it was David’s succuming to the temptation.

This census was not sanctioned by God like the one in Numbers, but David might have wanted to increase his army to show his power, and not for raising an army to fight a foe. He also might have wanted to increase his army to aquire more land, more than what God had given him.

What ever his motives were they were not for the glory of God but for the glory of David.

Job and the rest of the commanders of the army did not agree with this command and tried to reason with David. Joab said in 1 Chronicles 21:3 “But Joab said, “May the Lord add to his people a hundred times as many as they are! Are they not, my lord the king, all of them my lord’s servants? Why then should my lord require this? Why should it be a cause of guilt for Israel?”” telling him that no matter how many they are they are all servants of the king, and numbering them would not increase their number.

But David was stubborn and hard hearted in his temptation from Satan and commanded them to go out and number the people.

5-9

They went out and started about 14 miles east of the Dead sea on the northern bank of the Arnon river, in the southeastern corner of Israel and continued in a counterclockwise direction through the land of Israel

They counted 800,000 battle-seasoned men from Israel and 500,000 more in Judah.

1 Chronicles 21 counts 1,100,000 men in Israel and 470,000 in Judah. This discrepancy could be that 800,000 veterans of battles were counted and an additional 300,000 men of militarily age making 1.1 million in 1 Chronicles and 2 Samuel only list the veterans. Also in 2 Samuel the number of men of Judah includes 30,000 from Benjamin that 1 Chronicles does not.

10-17

After the census was taken David realizes that he had sinned, the text is not clear on the initial reasoning for the census, pride, wanting to expand past the God given boarders, or whatever the devil tempted him with.

David confesses his sin and asks for forgiveness from God, the next morning God sends Gad, David’s seer, the same Gad mentioned in 1 Samuel 22:5 “Then the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not remain in the stronghold; depart, and go into the land of Judah.” So David departed and went into the forest of Hereth.”

Gad informs David that God has given him three options on the punishment for not only his sin of the census but also the original anger God had against Israel. I think this shows how close God and David were by God giving options on his wrath.

David chooses the three days of pestilence, wanting to be punished by God directly and not by the hands of his enemies. The three days of pestilence was the shortest punishment but as we see still very severe as 70,000 men perished in the three days.

The death toll could have been much higher but God restrained the angel that was carrying out God’s punishment and had mercy on the people of Israel.

David sees the angel of the Lord who was carrying out the punishment and begs mercy from God for the people of Israel and takes full responsibility for incurring God’s wrath, saying that all of the punishment should fall on him and his house. He also called the people sheep just as Jesus did in his earthly first coming.

18-25

Gad comes again and tell David what to do to make amends to God, he tells him to build and alter for sacrifice on land that David did not own.

David asked Araunah, also called Ornan in 1 Chronicles, who was a Jebusite man, not an Israelite, David asked to purchase the land that the threshing floor was on, Araunah offers to give David, free of charge, the land, all the materials, and the livestock for the alter and sacrifices. The Jebusites were the inhabitants of the land near Jerusalem before the Jews.

David refuses the generous offer, saying that getting the land and the livestock for free would not be a sacrifice from him, David needs to be the one with the burden of providing the land and the materials and not Araunah. A sacrifice should be just that a sacrifice and something that you should offer up to God. This shows that David was serious about being repentant and needing to atone personally to God for his sin.

Fifty shekels is around one pound of silver. 1 Chronicles 21 has the amount at 600 shekels of gold, the fifty shekels of silver in 2 Samuel is for the initial purchase of the small plot for the alter (30-40 ft 2) and the livestock. The 600 shekels of gold in 1 Chronicles, or about 180 times the amount in 2 Samuel, is what David paid to Araunah later for the entire area of Mount Moriah.

1 Chronicles 21:25 “So David paid Ornan 600 shekels of gold by weight for the site.”