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2 Samuel 24

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David Orders a Census 1–9

1
And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah. ​
2
For the king said to Joab the captain of the host, which was with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number ye the people, that I may know the number of the people. ​
3
And Joab said unto the king, Now the LORD thy God add unto the people, how many soever they be, an hundredfold, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see it: but why doth my lord the king delight in this thing? ​
4
Notwithstanding the king's word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the host. And Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel.
5
And they passed over Jordan, and pitched in Aroer, on the right side of the city that lieth in the midst of the river of Gad, and toward Jazer:
6
Then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtimhodshi; and they came to Danjaan, and about to Zidon,
7
And came to the strong hold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites: and they went out to the south of Judah, even to Beersheba.
8
So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.
9
And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the people unto the king: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.

David Repents and Chooses Punishment 10–17

10
And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the LORD, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O LORD, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly. ​
11
For when David was up in the morning, the word of the LORD came unto the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,
12
Go and say unto David, Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.
13
So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days' pestilence in thy land? now advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me. ​
14
And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man. ​
15
So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men. ​
16
And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD was by the threshingplace of Araunah the Jebusite. ​
17
And David spake unto the LORD when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father's house. ​

The Altar at Araunah's Threshing Floor 18–25

18
And Gad came that day to David, and said unto him, Go up, rear an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite. ​
19
And David, according to the saying of Gad, went up as the LORD commanded.
20
And Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him: and Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king on his face upon the ground.
21
And Araunah said, Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy the threshingfloor of thee, to build an altar unto the LORD, that the plague may be stayed from the people.
22
And Araunah said unto David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good unto him: behold, here be oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing instruments and other instruments of the oxen for wood.
23
All these things did Araunah, as a king, give unto the king. And Araunah said unto the king, The LORD thy God accept thee. ​
24
And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. ​
25
And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD was intreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for 2 Samuel 24

Verse 1

he moved David against them — 'Moved' is suth, to incite. It is the verb of 1 Chr 21:1, which tells the same event and names the agent: 'Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel'. The verb also stands in Job 2:3, where the LORD says of Satan, 'thou movedst me against him'.

Verse 2

number ye the people — Paqad, to count and to muster. Moses' law set a condition on every census: 'then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the LORD, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them' (Ex 30:12). Joab's route, 'from Dan even to Beersheba', is the span of the whole land (Judg 20:1).

Verse 3

an hundredfold — Joab's wish echoes Moses' blessing, 'The LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are' (Deut 1:11). The multitude was the LORD's promise to give. 'Delight' is chaphets, the verb of 22:20. In 1 Chr 21:3 Joab adds, 'why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel?'

Verse 10

David's heart smote him — Nakah, the verb of 1 Sam 24:5, when his heart smote him after cutting Saul's skirt. His prayer, 'take away the iniquity' (abar, to pass over), uses the word of Nathan's answer, 'The LORD also hath put away thy sin' (12:13). 'Done very foolishly' is sakal, the word of Samuel to Saul, 'Thou hast done foolishly' (1 Sam 13:13).

Verse 13

So Gad came to David — Gad is 'David's seer' (v.11), who had told him to leave the hold for Judah (1 Sam 22:5). The three choices, famine, the enemy and pestilence, belong to the judgments of the covenant: 'I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy' (Lev 26:25). 'Pestilence' is deber.

Verse 14

into the hand of the LORD — 'Mercies' is racham, the tender compassion of Ps 51:1 and Ps 119:156, 'Great are thy tender mercies, O LORD'. David names the reason for his choice, 'his mercies are great', and the alternative, 'the hand of man'. 'Strait' is tsarar, to be narrow or cramped; its noun is the 'distress' of 22:7.

Verse 15

from Dan even to Beersheba — The pestilence reaches the same span that Joab crossed to count the people (v.2). The LORD 'sent' it, and 'seventy thousand men' died, as 1 Chr 21:14 also says. It runs 'from the morning even to the time appointed' (moed, an appointed time), and is checked at Jerusalem (v.16).

Verse 16

the LORD repented him of the evil — Nacham, the verb of 1 Sam 15:11, 'It repenteth me that I have set up Saul', and of Joel 2:13, where the LORD 'repenteth him of the evil'. The angel's hand is stopped at 'the threshingplace of Araunah the Jebusite' (goren). 'It is enough: stay now thine hand' is the LORD's word, said to the angel before Jerusalem.

Verse 17

these sheep, what have they done? — Tson, the flock David once followed as a shepherd (7:8). He speaks as the one who had numbered them: 'I have sinned, and I have done wickedly' (avah, to act crookedly, the root of 'iniquity', avon, in v.10). He asks that the hand fall 'against me, and against my father's house'.

Verse 18

rear an altar — Gad is sent 'that day', and 1 Chr 21:18 says the angel of the LORD commanded him. The threshingfloor is the site of the house: 'Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the LORD appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite' (2 Chr 3:1).

Verse 23

The LORD thy God accept thee — Ratsah, the verb for the LORD's receiving of an offering and a worshipper, as in Ezek 20:40, 'there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings'. Araunah, a Jebusite, offers more than David asks: 'oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing instruments and other instruments of the oxen for wood' (v.22).

Verse 24

cost me nothing — Chinnam, 'for nothing', the word David refuses. He buys the floor and the oxen 'at a price' (mechir), 'for fifty shekels of silver'. David states his reason in his own words: he will not offer burnt offerings 'of that which doth cost me nothing'.

Verse 25

the plague was stayed — Atsar, to hold back, as in Num 25:8 and 16:48, 'the plague was stayed'. David offers 'burnt offerings and peace offerings'. 'The LORD was intreated for the land' is athar; the same words close the earlier famine, 'after that God was intreated for the land' (21:14), so the two events frame the last chapters of the book.