2 Samuel24
New King James Version
1Again the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel, and He moved David against them to say, “Go, number Israel and Judah.”
2So the king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him, “Now go throughout all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and count the people, that I may know the number of the people.”
3And Joab said to the king, “Now may the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times more than there are, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king desire this thing?”
4Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the army. Therefore Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king to count the people of Israel.
5And they crossed over the Jordan and camped in Aroer, on the right side of the town which is in the midst of the ravine of Gad, and toward Jazer.
6Then they came to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim Hodshi; they came to Dan Jaan and around to Sidon;
7and they came to the stronghold of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites. Then they went out to South Judah as far as Beersheba.
8So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.
9Then Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to the king. And there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.
10And David’s heart condemned him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done; but now, I pray, O Lord, take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”
11Now when David arose 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 for yourself, that I may do it to you.” ’ ”
13So Gad came to David and told him; and he said to him, “Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or shall you flee three months before your enemies, while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ plague in your land? Now consider and see what answer I should take back to Him who sent me.”
14And David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Please let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”
15So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel from the morning till the appointed time. From Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand men of the people died.
16And when the angel stretched out His hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the destruction, and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “It is enough; now restrain your hand.” And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
17Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, “Surely I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father’s house.”
18And Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”
19So David, according to the word of Gad, went up as the Lord commanded.
20Now Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming toward him. So Araunah went out and bowed before the king with his face to the ground.
21Then 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, that the plague may be withdrawn from the people.”
22Now Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up whatever seems good to him. Look, here are oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing implements and the yokes of the oxen for wood.
23All these, O king, Araunah has given to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the Lord your God accept you.”
24Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
25And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel.
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