2 Samuel24
New International Version
1Again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.”
2So the king said to Joab and the army commanders with him, “Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enroll the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are.”
3But Joab replied to the king, “May the Lord your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?”
4The king’s word, however, overruled Joab and the army commanders; so they left the presence of the king to enroll the fighting men of Israel.
5After crossing the Jordan, they camped near Aroer, south of the town in the gorge, and then went through Gad and on to Jazer.
6They went to Gilead and the region of Tahtim Hodshi, and on to Dan Jaan and around toward Sidon.
7Then they went toward the fortress of Tyre and all the towns of the Hivites and Canaanites. Finally, they went on to Beersheba in the Negev of Judah.
8After they had gone through the entire land, they came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.
9Joab reported the number of the fighting men to the king: In Israel there were eight hundred thousand able-bodied men who could handle a sword, and in Judah five hundred thousand.
10David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, Lord, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”
11Before David got up the next morning, the word of the Lord had come to Gad the prophet, David’s seer:
12“Go and tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’”
13So Gad went to David and said to him, “Shall there come on you three years of famine in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague in your land? Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”
14David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”
15So the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died.
16When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
17When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the Lord, “I have sinned; I, the shepherd, have done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Let your hand fall on me and my family.”
18On that day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”
19So David went up, as the Lord had commanded through Gad.
20When Araunah looked and saw the king and his officials coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.
21Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” “To buy your threshing floor,” David answered, “so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped.”
22Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever he wishes and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood.
23Your Majesty, Araunah gives all this to the king.” Araunah also said to him, “May the Lord your God accept you.”
24But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them.
25David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Lord answered his prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for 2 Samuel 24.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: David numbers the people. (1–9). He chooses the pestilence. (10–15). The staying the pestilence. (16, 17). David's sacrifice, The plague removed. (18–25).
vv1-9
For the people's sin David was left to act wrong, and in his chastisement they received punishment. This example throws light upon God's government of the world, and furnishes a useful lesson. The pride of David's heart, was his sin in numbering of the people. He thought thereby to appear the more formidable, trusting in an arm of flesh more than he should have done, and though he had written so much of trusting in God only. God judges not of sin as we do. What appears to us harmless, or, at least, but a small offence, may be a great sin in the eye of God, who discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart. Even ungodly men can discern evil tempers and wrong conduct in believers, of which they themselves often remain unconscious. But God seldom allows those whom he loves the pleasures they sinfully covet.
vv10-15
It is well, when a man has sinned, if he has a heart within to smite him for it. If we confess our sins, we may pray in faith that God would forgive them, and take away, by pardoning mercy, that sin which we cast away by sincere repentance. What we make the matter of our pride, it is just in God to take from us, or make bitter to us, and make it our punishment. This must be such a punishment as the people have a large share in, for though it was David's sin that opened the sluice, the sins of the people all contributed to the flood. In this difficulty, David chose a judgment which came immediately from God, whose mercies he knew to be very great, rather than from men, who would have triumphed in the miseries of Israel, and have been thereby hardened in their idolatry. He chose the pestilence; he and his family would be as much exposed to it as the poorest Israelite; and he would continue for a shorter time under the Divine rebuke, however severe it was. The rapid destruction by the pestilence shows how easily God can bring down the proudest sinners, and how much we owe daily to the Divine patience.
vv16-17
Perhaps there was more wickedness, especially more pride, and that was the sin now chastised, in Jerusalem than elsewhere, therefore the hand of the destroyer is stretched out upon that city; but the Lord repented him of the evil, changed not his mind, but his way. In the very place where Abraham was stayed from slaying his son, this angel, by a like countermand, was stayed from destroying Jerusalem. It is for the sake of the great Sacrifice, that our forfeited lives are preserved from the destroying angel. And in David is the spirit of a true shepherd of the people, offering himself as a sacrifice to God, for the salvation of his subjects.
Key Words
יָסַף: to add or augment (often adverbial, to continue to do a thing)
אַף: properly, the nose or nostril; hence, the face, and occasionally a person; also (from the rapid breathing in passion) ire
חָרָה: to glow or grow warm; figuratively (usually) to blaze up, of anger, zeal, jealousy
יִשְׂרָאֵל: Jisrael, a symbolical name of Jacob; also (typically) of his posterity
סוּת: properly, to prick, i.e. (figuratively) stimulate; by implication, to seduce
דָּוִד: David, the youngest son of Jesse
אָמַר: to say (used with great latitude)
יָלַךְ: to walk (literally or figuratively); causatively, to carry (in various senses)
מָנָה: properly, to weigh out; by implication, to allot or constitute officially; also to enumerate or enroll
יְהוּדָה: Jehudah (or Judah), the name of five Israelites; also of the tribe descended from the first, and of its territory
Cross References
2 Samuel 24Parallel account explicitly identifies Satan as the active agent/provoker of the numbering.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Parallel text clarifies the choice between three years of famine, three months of flight, or pestilence.
Supported by JFB
Identifies Araunah's threshingfloor (Moriah) as the site where Solomon built the temple.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Parallel passage emphasizing David's refusal to offer to God that which cost him nothing.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Parallels the idiom of God stirring up a king to act, illustrating permission vs temptation.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Theological parallel regarding God's providential/secret agency (Shimei's cursing) over evil acts.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Parallel recording Joab's strong protest and warning that the census would cause guilt.
Supported by JFB
Provides the differing numbers from Chronicles; reconciled by military vs non-military inclusion.
Supported by JFB
David declares Araunah's threshingfloor as the house of God and altar of burnt offering.
Supported by Matthew Henry
The reference of 'again' links back to the prior divine wrath seen in the famine.
Supported by JFB
Prescribes a ransom-money requirement when numbering Israel to prevent a plague.
Supported by JFB
Confirms the census was never fully completed because wrath fell upon Israel.
Supported by JFB
Mount Moriah connects the place of Isaac's binding to the site of David's altar.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Geographical match for Aroer and the river of Gad (Arnon) where the census began.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Explains 'Tahtim-hodshi' as the territory of the Hagarenes conquered during Saul's reign.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Parallel describing the angel sent to destroy Jerusalem and God staying his hand.
Supported by JFB