2 Samuel 24 - Introduction

XXIV.

This chapter contains the account of David’s sin in numbering the people, and the punishment in consequence. The same narrative is found in 1 Chronicles 21, but with such considerable variations as to show that neither can have been taken from the other, but both must have been drawn from the original documents, which were probably very full, quite independently of each other.

No definite note of time is given. The word again in 2 Samuel 24:1 clearly refers to 2 Samuel 21, and so places this after the three years’ famine for the Gibeomtes. The fact that Joab was engaged in the work nearly ten months (2 Samuel 24:8) shows that it must have been a time of profound peace. The story in Chronicles is immediately followed by the account of David’s final preparations for the building of the Temple. All these considerations concur in placing it near the close of his reign.

The question of the nature of David’s sin in this act has been much discussed. The mere taking of a census in itself could not have been wrong, since it was provided for in the Law (Exodus 30:12) and had been repeatedly carried out by Moses (Numbers 1:26). Nor is it likely that it was for the reason given by Josephus, that David neglected to secure for the sanctuary, as required, a half shekel from each one numbered (Exodus 30:13), since there is no mention of this, and David was at this very time concentrating the whole wealth of the kingdom for the future sanctuary. Yet the sinfulness of the act is distinctly set forth in the narrative (2 Samuel 24:1) and in the punishment inflicted (2 Samuel 24:15), is recognised by David himself (2 Samuel 24:10; 2 Samuel 24:17), and even forcibly impressed itself upon a person so little scrupulous as Joab (2 Samuel 24:3). It must, then, plainly be sought in the motive of David. The whole connection shows that it was a military census, and it was made, not through the priests and Levites, but through Joab and “the captains of the host.” It would appear that prosperity and power, the natural generators of pride, had momentarily affected even David’s humble dependence upon God, and led him to wish to organise his kingdom more perfectly as a worldly power among the nations of the earth. A first step in this direction must of course be the placing of his military forces upon a systematic footing. This same desire to turn aside Israel from being a simple theocracy, to become a great earthly power, was the constant sin of the nation. It had led at the first to the request for a king, and Solomon was so thoroughly possessed with it, and so ordered all his policy in view of it, as to draw down, at his death, the judgment of the breaking up of the unity of the nation; and it is not surprising that, after all his conquests, David, in a moment of weakness, should have given way to something of the same spirit. It was thus an act most absolutely at variance with that general character which made him “a man after God’s own heart.”