1 Chronicles 21:1-30
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
2 And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it.
3 And Joab answered, The LORD make his people an hundred times so many more as they be: but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants? why then doth my lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel?
4 Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.
5 And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.
6 But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king's word was abominable to Joab.
7 And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel.
8 And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing: but now, I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.
9 And the LORD spake unto Gad, David's seer, saying,
10 Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the LORD, I offera thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.
11 So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Chooseb thee
12 Either three years' famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the LORD, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me.
13 And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very greatc are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man.
14 So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
15 And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshingfloor of Ornand the Jebusite.
16 And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.
17 And David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be on me, and on my father's house; but not on thy people, that they should be plagued.
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.
19 And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spake in the name of the LORD.
20 And Ornane turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.
21 And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshingfloor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.
22 Then David said to Ornan, Grantf me the place of this threshingfloor, that I may build an altar therein unto the LORD: thou shalt grant it me for the full price: that the plague may be stayed from the people.
23 And Ornan said unto David, Take it to thee, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes: lo, I give thee the oxen also for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meat offering; I give it all.
24 And king David said to Ornan, Nay; but I will verily buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is thine for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings without cost.
25 So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight.
26 And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the LORD; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering.
27 And the LORD commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof.
28 At that time when David saw that the LORD had answered him in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.
29 For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering, were at that season in the high place at Gibeon.
30 But David could not go before it to enquire of God: for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the LORD.
1 Chronicles 21:1. Satan stood up against Israel; that is, the accuser, or calumniator.
1 Chronicles 21:3. Why will my lord the king be a cause of trespass to Israel? Joab was struck with the sin, and in a way we can scarcely account for. Satan, who knew the elated state of Israel, and who knows how to catch men by their passions, availed himself of the popular humour of the king and the people, to draw them to a boasting and wanton pride.
1 Chronicles 21:5. Joab gave the number, in a round sum. See 2 Samuel 24:9. Dr. Lightfoot accounts for the variation of the account, by the number of the allies being included in the one census, and not in the other.
1 Chronicles 21:11. Choose thee, either three years' famine, &c. Here is a sad choice of three sore temporal punishments for a temporal sin. Famine would diminish their boasted numbers by death and by exile; the sword would do the same; the pestilence would also do it. David wisely chose the plague, which happily operated in bringing him and the people to sit in the dust, after their soaring pride in meditated grasps at empire and dominion. Joab did not count Levi, being poor; nor Benjamin, not yet recovered from their almost total excision by the civil war.
1 Chronicles 21:25. Six hundred shekels of gold. In 2 Samuel 24:24, it is “fifty shekels of silver.” As the shekels were of different weight and value, it is thought that David gave fifty shekels of gold for the threshingfloor, which would make about six hundred shekels of silver. Hence one word might easily be miswritten for another. David's fall and family calamities are here omitted.
1 Chronicles 21:26. The Lord answered by fire upon the altar. This was the highest mark of divine approbation; it was also accompanied by a revelation that the Lord had chosen that hill for the scite of his throne and sanctuary; and by consequence, that all the high places where the patriarchs had offered burnt-offerings, should for ever cease. See on 2 Kings 18 2 Kings 18. The Persians and the Hindoos err in worshipping fire as a god, for he has veiled his presence in clouds, and in angelic figures, as well as in flames of fire; and he still accepts the offering of the heart by the holy fire of love. Luke 24:32; Romans 5:5.
REFLECTIONS.
But in addition to the former remarks on this important chapter, we may observe that Moses formed in the spirit a perfect idea of the character of his nation. “Jeshurun,” says he, “waxed fat and kicked.” The remark was highly predictive. This whole nation was intoxicated with the victories of their king, and with the vast accession of wealth, of territory, and of proselytes. Hence they boasted of their population, and gloried in their strength. Hence the anger of the Lord, it is said in Samuel, was kindled against Israel, and he permitted Satan to tempt them to sin, that their boasted numbers might be diminished by affliction. How mysterious is the hand of God, that he should often make those very accomplishments, in which the wicked peculiarly glory, the cause of their humiliation and shame.
To number the people for vain parade, that they might trust in the multitude rather than in the Lord, was revolting even to Joab. The task was insupportable; for he left Benjamin and Levi unpolled, and returned the gross number. And it is not improbable but Benjamin, who inhabited part of Jerusalem, was spared in the plague on that account. It is very mortifying when the leading persons in Christ's church so act as to excite remonstrances from carnal and wicked men.
When a nation or a city weep and pray for the remission of sins, when they fast and humble their souls, they may expect the stern aspect of justice to soften into compassion. JEHOVAH, the angel, finding the city in sackcloth, dropped his avenging sword; but shunning the voluptuous houses of princes, he abode at the threshingfloor, and discovered himself to Araunah and his sons; for the well disposed heathen found more grace in the eyes of heaven than an Israelite elated with prosperity.
We have next, the deep humiliation and repentance of David, for his vain glory in numbering the people. He was not the only sinner; the nation at large were intoxicated with their conquests, and their wealth; yet he takes to himself the whole of the sin and of the punishment; and it was solely on account of his repentance that his life, and the lives of his people were saved from the plague. We here learn the character of true repentance. We must not justify ourselves, we must not diminish the atrocious circumstances of our sins, but lay down our neck to the stroke, and submit both body and soul to the gracious pleasure of Almighty God. He knows best how to act towards a guilty people. The placability, and compassion of God are very encouraging motives to repentance. He came to destroy Jerusalem; for that city was, no doubt, the foremost to glory and trust in an arm of flesh. But finding them in tears from the idea of the plague, and by the sermons of Gad, the Lord not only forbore the stroke, but chose his residence among them. He approached the industrious Jebusite and his four sons: for now, it would seem, they were proselytes to the Jewish religion, and required an atoning altar to be constructed there. Yea, he chose this most convenient spot for the scite of his temple, and honoured the sacrifice by accepting it with fire from heaven. Let no man therefore account his repentance complete, till God reveals a peace to his conscience which passeth all understanding, and a hallowing flame of love to his heart which passeth knowledge.
There is one circumstance more which seems to claim attention. Zion the fort, and Salem the city, were the metropolis of the Jebusites in the days of Abraham. Genesis 14. So it had continued till David took it by storm; but this humane conqueror had not dispossessed Araunah of his land, nor the poor of their dwellings; for true valour is characterized by humanity. This land David now purchased. Surely, if we may pay any regard to the many typical things not marked as such in the new testament, we have here a figure, that God would lay among the gentiles the great foundation of the christian church. Such was his wisdom, and such his sovereignty, to choose the place where the glories of his name should be recorded. May our souls, in like manner, so long the seat of vanity, become a habitation of God through the Spirit.
How happy were the Hebrews in having the oracle and holy prophets nigh at hand. The primitive christians long enjoyed this privilege. Why is it now almost lost. Oh, when will the Lord restore it to us again, as he has promised in the sacred scriptures.