David’s sin in numbering the people
24
📚And again the anger 📖 of the LORD burned against Israel, and he moved 📖 David against them to say, “Go, count Israel and Judah”.2 📚For the king said to Joab the commander of the army, who was with him, “Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba 📖, and count the people, so that I may know 📖 the number of the people”.
3 📚And Joab said to the king, “Now may the LORD your God add a hundredfold to the people, however many they may be, so that the eyes of my lord the king may see it. But why does my lord the king delight in this thing?”
24:3 Even Joab, unspiritual man that he was, recognized the folly of David’s action.⚜
4 📚However the king’s word prevailed against Joab, and against the officers of the army. And Joab and the officers of the army went out from the presence of the king, to count the people of Israel.
24:4 David does not give a reason for wanting a census. Did he realize himself that his motives were wrong? In any case, he stubbornly rejected Joab’s criticism, and insisted on having his own way. God’s servants should learn to weigh humbly and carefully any criticism of their actions. It could save them much trouble.⚜
5 📚And they crossed the Jordan and camped in Aroer, on the right side of the city that lies in the middle of the river valley of Gad, and toward Jazer. 6 📚Then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtim-Hodshi, and they came to Dan-Jaan, and around to Sidon, 7 📚and came to the stronghold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites and of the Canaanites. And they went out to the south of Judah, 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 handed over to the king the sum of the number of the people. And there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.
10 📚And David was struck to the heart after he had counted the people. And David said to the LORD, “I have sinned 📖 greatly in what I have done. And now, I beg you, O LORD, take away the wickedness of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly”.
The result of David’s sin, the plague
11 📚And when David was up in the morning, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Gad 📖, David’s seer 📖, saying, 12 📚“Go and tell David, ‘Thus says the LORD: I offer you three things. Choose one of them, so that I may do it to you.’ ”
13 📚So Gad came to David and told him and said to him, “Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your enemies, while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ of plague in your land? Now find out and see what answer I should take back to the one who sent me”.
24:12-13 Compare 2 Sam 12:9-14. Confession and forgiveness do not mean that God’s chastisement will not come. Famine, defeat by enemies, and plague were three of the means God threatened to use to punish a disobedient people (Deut 28:15-25; Jer 14:12; Ezek 14:21). David chose to have God deal directly with him and the people rather than indirectly through famine or enemies.⚜
14 📚And David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us fall now into the hands of the LORD, for his mercies 📖 are great. But do not let me fall into the hands of man”.
15 📚So the LORD sent a plague on Israel from morning to the time appointed, and seventy thousand 📖 men of the people, from Dan even to Beersheba, died. 16 📚And when the angel stretched out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented 📖 concerning the disaster, and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “It is enough. Now hold back your hand”. And the angel 📖 of the LORD was by the threshing place of Araunah the Jebusite.
17 📚And David spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel that struck down the people, and said, “Look, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly. But these sheep 📖, what have they done? I pray you, let your hand be against me and against my father’s house”.
David builds an altar and offers sacrifice
18 📚And Gad 📖 came to David that day and said to him, “Go up, erect an altar 📖 to the LORD in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite 📖”. 19 📚And David, in accordance with the word 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 prostrated himself before the king with his face on the ground.
21 📚And Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” And David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the LORD, so that the plague may be held back 📖 from the people”.
22 📚And Araunah said to David, “May my lord the king take and offer up whatever seems good to him. Look, here are oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for wood. 23 📚O king, all these things Araunah gives to the king”. And Araunah said to the king, “The LORD your God accept you”.
24 📚And the king said to Araunah, “No, but I must buy it from you at a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God from what costs me nothing”. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels 📖 of silver.
24:24 Alas, that many of God’s people are willing to give their worst to God, or that which costs them the least (Mal 1:13-14). In this way they show that their love for Him is very small or non-existent. Note and references on giving at 2 Cor 9:15.⚜
25 📚And David built an altar there to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD heard prayer for the land, and the plague was held back from Israel.
24:25 These offerings spoke of dedication to God and reconciliation after sinning against Him. See notes at Leviticus chapters 1 and 3. After the events of this chapter, the people might well have prayed the prayer of Moses (Ps 90). It is a fitting commentary on this chapter.⚜