Outline
David’s numbering the people.
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
Comparing this verse with II Sam. 24:1 we know that this is a case of God using Satan to accomplish his greater
purpose. In this instance, David sinned by not requiring the proper “ransom” commanded by God when numbering the
people (Ex. 30:12); the people sinned by not bringing the proper offering (Ex. 30:12) and by obeying men rather than God
(Acts 15:29).
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 offer 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, Choose 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.
“three years’ famine…” – the same account in II Sam. 24:13 finds David being offered SEVEN years of famine.
This is one of the more famous apparent contradictions in the Old Testament. The new “bibles” assume the poor Jewish
scribes couldn’t count and the Holy Spirit must have made a “mistake,” so they help the reader by changing the “seven” in
II Samuel to a “three.” God however does not make mistakes and all apparent contradictions in his word are just that –
only “apparent” and not genuine.
The solution to this “problem” can be found in II Sam. 21:1 where David had already undergone three years o
famine for Saul’s sin of killing the Gibeonites. In II Sam. 24:13, Gad asks David, “shall seven years of famine COME
UNTO THEE…?” At the time of this account, Israel had already experienced three years of famine and was in the fourth
year as the numbering of Israel took nine and one-half months (II Sam. 24:8). David was being offered THREE more
years of famine (I Chr. 21:12) which would make a total of SEVEN years (II Sam. 24:13). This is why II Sam. 24:1 says,
“And AGAIN the anger of the Lord was kindled….”
This apparent contradiction and its solution simply show the attitude of unbelief with which modern Bible
scholars approach the word of God and the reasons that often underlay their “modern translations.” Those who believe
that the King James Bible is God’s perfect, preserved word in English do not take this position just to be on a bandwagon,
but because time after time this Bible proves itself to be accurate when other versions take the easy way out of hard
doctrines and problem texts by CHANGING the words of God. We believe that God puts some of these apparent
contradictions in his word to test the attitude of those who approach the word – the haughty and prideful student will be
quick to admit errors when he or she doesn’t understand a scripture and will exert their authority over the word. The
humble student when faced with an apparent contradiction will seek God’s face for an answer and will pray and study until
God shows him how the verses fit – throughout all of this, such a student will always have the attitude that the Bible is the
final authority, not himself!
13 And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the Lord; for very great 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 Ornan 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 Ornan 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, Grant 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.
“600 shekels of gold” – here we find another apparent contradiction as the price given in II Sam. 24:24 is only fifty
shekels of silver. A careful reading of the verses will show however that one was the price for the threshingfloor and oxen,
the other was the price of the whole “place.”
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.
Commentary by Matthew Henry, 1710
No mention is made in this book of David’s sin in the matter of Uriah, neither of the troubles that followed it: they had no needful connexion with the subjects here noted. But David’s sin, in numbering the people, is related: in the atonement made for that sin, there was notice of the place on which the temple should be built. The command to David to build an altar, was a blessed token of reconciliation. God testified his acceptance of David’s offerings on this altar. Thus Christ was made sin, and a curse for us; it pleased the Lord to bruise him, that through him, God might be to us, not a consuming Fire, but a reconciled God. It is good to continue attendance on those ordinances in which we have experienced the tokens of God’s presence, and have found that he is with us of a truth. Here God graciously met me, therefore I will still expect to meet him.