2Samuel 24:1 ¶ 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.
The beginning of this chapter is very
interesting. Note a contrasting verse. My intention was to wait until the
events of 1st and 2nd Samuel are reported in Chronicles
but I thought this was an important point to make.
1Chronicles 21:1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and
provoked David to number Israel.
Regarding the same event we learn that a man
may provoke God’s anger under the Law and yet Satan may carry out the
provocation. So, in history, we cannot tell if it is God’s perfect will that a
thing happens or if it His permissive will in allowing it to happen unless we
are told.
God was angry with Israel, Satan stood
against them, and David was prompted to perform a census, which justified God’s
wrath. Events in the spiritual world are much more complicated than our little
children’s Sunday School idea of church allows.
Joab tries to dissuade David from carrying
out this census. However, David’s pride prompted him, in his old-age, to
conduct this census of fighting men. Perhaps David wanted to gloat about his
earthly power. God was not pleased with this and Joab tried to warn him not to
do it.
This passage makes a good point that the
ancient world was more populous than we are led to believe by movies and some
scholars. Israel was rich in agriculture and could maintain a large population.
I think that is apparent and I have discussed things like climate in my
comments on Genesis.
2Samuel 24:10 ¶ 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.
David repents of his prideful sin but it is
the Israelites who must pay for his wrongdoing. It is important to understand
the politics and social culture of a monarchy. In history, in an absolute
monarchy the king held power over every decision and even life and death. The
land and the people were regarded as his property although under Israel God is
the ultimate owner of everything and everyone. This is why this punishment
could be considered as enacted on David by taking tens of thousands of his
subjects away from him.
We have discussed what it means to say the
Lord repented previously, as when someone turns from something they
announced to do.
See my comments from Exodus.
Exodus 32:7 ¶ And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee
down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have
corrupted themselves: 8 They have turned
aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a
molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said,
These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of
Egypt. 9 And the LORD said unto Moses, I
have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: 10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may
wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a
great nation. 11 And Moses besought the
LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people,
which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and
with a mighty hand? 12 Wherefore should
the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them
in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy
fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy
servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will
multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken
of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. 14 And the LORD repented of the evil which he
thought to do unto his people.
God tells Moses to stand back while He destroys the Hebrews for
their idolatry. This gives Moses the chance to argue that to do such a thing
would go against God’s glory. It would not glorify Him in the sight of the
Egyptians. It would even appear that this destruction was the very reason He
led them out of Egypt and would justify the Egyptians rather than Himself.
After all, no one would think what the Hebrews were doing was amiss, now would
they, in the religious conditions of that world?
In verse 12 there is the definition of repent used here. It is to turn
from something. This, then, in context is the definition of repented of the evil which he thought to do
unto his people in verse 14. He turned from this. This is in keeping with a
doctrine found in the Bible that God does not repent as in ‘change His mind.’
As God’s foreknowledge covers every event as if it has already happened we must
look to the context for understanding. In the next two verses repent is linked with lie, the point being that God can be
trusted for the promises He made, and will not turn from them.
Numbers 23:19 God is
not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent:
hath he said, and shall he not do it?
or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
1Samuel 15:29 And also the Strength of Israel will not lie
nor repent: for he is not a
man, that he should repent.
Here are other verses where repent
means to turn from something as
in the passage studied, to stop doing it or not do it, by comparing the
contrast in the verse in which the words repent
and turn are used.
Jeremiah 4:28 For this shall the earth mourn, and the
heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it,
and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.
Jeremiah 18:8 If that nation, against whom I have
pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to
do unto them.
Jeremiah 26:3 If so be they will hearken, and turn every
man from his evil way, that I may repent me of the evil, which I purpose to do
unto them because of the evil of their doings.
Ezekiel 14:6 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus
saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn yourselves
from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.
Ezekiel 18:30 Therefore I will judge you, O house of
Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your
transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.
Jonah 3:9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce
anger, that we perish not?
Acts 26:20 But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and
at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they
should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.
Sometimes, someone’s behavior can compel you to turn from what you
are permitting or doing. For instance, a child you have given a privilege to
disobeys in a way that compels you to punish them or to revoke the privilege.
In that case their behavior repenteth
you. And, in Genesis 6:6,7 that behavior that compelled Him in something He
already knew was going to happen grieved Him.
Clearly then, to repent of your sins is to turn from them. For the
Christian repentance also suggests being sorry for your sins and for who you
are, a sinner. As Paul noted;
2Corinthians 7:9 Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry,
but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly
manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. 10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to
salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
But, in this context repent
is simply to turn from what was
stated to be done.
2Samuel 24:18 ¶ 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.
Later we are told that the Lord had ordered
the prophet Gad to tell this to David.
1Chronicles 21:18 ¶ Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to
say to David, that David should go up, and set up an altar unto the LORD in the
threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
Variant spellings of names written by
different chroniclers are not uncommon. The writer of 2Samuel spells it Araunah
and the writer of 1Chronicles writes the name as Ornan. This prophet, Gad,
named after the tribe, is first mentioned here;
1Samuel 22:5
And the prophet Gad said unto David, Abide not in the hold; depart, and
get thee into the land of Judah. Then David departed, and came into the forest
of Hareth.
Honored, the Jebusite, not an ethnic
Israelite, offers the site for free to the king, as he is honored but David
refuses to burn offerings at no cost so he pays him for it. I was struck by the
interplay and ancient ethics involved in this passage as 2Samuel draws to a
close. A Canaanite offers up his own property as it is not seized or appropriated
by the Israelite king. The king will not receive it unless he pays a fair
price. This reminds me of Abraham’s purchase of a burying place for Sarah from
the sons of Heth in Genesis, chapter 23.
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