II Samuel 24, Census and Plague

We are summarizing various events in the reign of David. The last four chapters of the scroll of Samuel have:

• a famine and its resolution (2 Samuel 21)
• a song of David (2 Samuel 22)
• the last words of David and a list of heroes (2 Samuel 23)
• a plague and its resolution (2 Samuel 24)

Here the plague is apparently caused by David taking a census of the people.

2 Samuel 24: 1-3, Census

Again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, "Go and take a census of Israel and Judah."

So 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."

But 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?"

A parallel passage, 1 Chronicles 21, has Satan inciting David to take the census. Here, the Hebrew of 2 Samuel 24: 1 is not clear on how David was "incited", as the critical verb, way-ya-set, apparently means "he/it incited" with a vague pronoun as subject. Some reconcile all of this by suggesting that God allowed Satan to seduce David into taking the census. The eventual result of this census and plague is the identification of the location of the future temple.

A census is apparently prohibited because the king of Israel is to rely on YHWH. (See Deuteronomy 17: 14-20 which, although saying nothing of a census, orders a king to rely on YHWH, not horses or armies.) Even Joab is opposed to the census. As a census was often a prelude to further taxation, and so Joab may expect rebellion from the people during this process. We will see that the census is done by soldiers who are counting the number of fighting men.

2 Samuel 24: 4-9, Overruled

The 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. After crossing the Jordan, they camped near Aroer, south of the town in the gorge, and then went through Gad and on to Jazer. They went to Gilead and the region of Tahtim Hodshi, and on to Dan Jaan and around toward Sidon. Then 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.

After they had gone through the entire land, they came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. Joab 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.

Joab completes the census.  There are some natural questions about these numbers, just as in the numbers of the Exodus.

2 Samuel 24: 10-12, Guilty

David 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, O LORD, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing."

Before David got up the next morning, the word of the LORD had come to Gad the prophet, David's seer: "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.'"

David feels guilty about what has been done and prays for forgiveness.  The prophet, Gad, brings a choice of penance.

2 Samuel 24: 13-14, 

So Gad went to David and said to him, "Shall there come upon 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."
 

David 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 the hands of men."
 

David has already spent months fleeing from enemies.  He chooses a three day plague.

2 Samuel 24: 15-17, A plague

So 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. When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the LORD was grieved because of the calamity 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.

When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the LORD, "I am the one who has sinned and done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Let your hand fall upon me and my family."

 

The plague kills thousands.  (We do not know what it is.)

2 Samuel 24: 18-25, An altar on a threshing floor

On 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." So David went up, as the LORD had commanded through Gad.
 

When Araunah looked and saw the king and his men coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground. Araunah 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."

Araunah said to David, "Let my lord the king take whatever pleases him and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. O king, Araunah gives all this to the king." Araunah also said to him, "May the LORD your God accept you."

But 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. David built an altar to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the LORD answered prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.

David builds an altar on the threshing floor and the plague stops. Although this event is certainly not the last act of David, the book of Samuel ends here. David's death and the inauguration of Solomon will be covered in 1 Kings 1-2.

We have finished the scroll of Samuel, the story of David. Although the Christian Bible continues with the books of first and second Kings, we will take a break to look at some of David's songs and will spend the next two months in the psalter of Israel, working through Psalms 1 to 41, Book 1 of the five books of Psalms.