2 Samuel 24:1-4,8; 1 Chronicles 21:5-7; 2 Samuel 24:10; 1 Chronicles 21:8-13
And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah. 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. 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? 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. So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.
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. But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king’s word was abominable to Joab. And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel.
And David’s heart smote him after that he had numbered the people.
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. And the LORD spake unto Gad, David’s seer, saying, 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. So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Choose thee 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.
And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me now fall into the hand of the LORD; for very great are his mercies; but let me not fall into the hand of man.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): We are not left in any doubt that on this occasion David committed a grave fault, yet wherein lay the evil of it is not so certain.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): What harm was there in it? Did not Moses twice number the people without any crime? Does not political arithmetic come in among the other policies of a prince? Should not the shepherd know the number of his sheep? Does not the Son of David know all His own by name? Might not he make good use of this calculation? What evil has he done, if he do this?
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): In the parallel place, 1 Chronicles 21:1, it is expressly said, “Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.” David, in all probability, was slackening in his piety and confidence toward God, and meditating some extension of his dominions without the Divine counsel or command.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): “The anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.” It was a national sin, not a personal sin only…It is more than probable that David’s sin, on this occasion, was, that he was looking for strength from numbers more than from the LORD. And Satan found occasion to blow up this pride of David into a flame of rebellion against the LORD. Alas! what is man in his highest attainments, if but for a moment left to himself and his own government? Well might David, from his own experience, put up the prayer which he did upon another occasion: “Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins,” Psalm 19:13.
G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): We may certainly gain an understanding of it from the protest of Joab, “Now the Lord thy God add unto the people, how many soever they be, an hundredfold, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it; but why doth my lord the king delight in this thing?” The spirit of vainglory in numbers had taken possession of the people and the king, and there was a tendency to trust in numbers and forget God.
MATTHEW HENRY: Some think that it was an affront to the ancient promise which God made to Abraham, that his seed should be innumerable as the dust of the earth; it savoured of distrust of that promise, or a design to show that it was not fulfilled in the letter of it. He would number those of whom God had said that they could not be numbered.
G. CAMPBELL MORGAN: That the act was wrong is evident from David’s consciousness that it was so.
THE EDITOR: Immediately afterwards, “David’s heart smote him,” convicting him of his sin. That phrase is found in only one other place—when David cut off the skirt of Saul’s garment. God had commanded Israel to “make fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue—that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring,” Numbers 15:38,39. When David held up that severed fringe before king Saul, 1 Samuel 24:11, Saul was convicted, remembering that God had “rent the kingdom from him” for disobeying the Lord’s commandment, 1 Samuel 24:20; 1 Samuel 15:13-28—as with Saul, it marked the effectual end of David’s reign, and surely David realized what he had done.
MATTHEW HENRY: It was a proud conceit of his own greatness in having the command of so numerous a people, as if their increase, which was to be ascribed purely to the blessing of God, had been owing to any conduct of his own. It was a proud confidence in his own strength.
THE EDITOR: At end of 2 Samuel 23, there is a twenty-two verse list—a distinct numbering of all David’s mighty men, which hints at his growing dependence on them, due to his increasing incapacity from old age. Subtly, little by little, David was drifting into that old folly of not consulting God, and relying on arms of flesh, and his own wisdom. Knowing that the end of his life was approaching, David also was most likely considering his legacy, and desired to quantify how the kingdom had been enlarged under his reign; but he forgot that “the kingdom is the LORD’s,” Psalm 22:28. God has said, “My glory I will not give to another,” Isaiah 42:8. And Satan took advantage of David’s concerns of old age, to provoke him to sin.
JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): Satan is a watchful enemy; he studies our situation and disposition.
THOMAS ADAMS (1583-1656): Like a fisherman, he baits his hook according to the appetite of the fish.
ROBERT HAWKER: David’s sin seems plainly to have been the sin of presumption, in trusting more to an arm of flesh than in the LORD GOD of his salvation—yet that God should propose what kind of punishment the sinner would choose, appears difficult to explain.
THE EDITOR: God’s purpose was to chastise Israel for their national sins, as embodied in David’s sin, and to turn them from trusting their own wisdom and arms of flesh—to restore them to fully trusting their God, and to do the same for David. David’s answer to Gad shows that he understood that purpose; he answered wisely, refusing to choose; in faith, he looked to the Lord’s mercy—in essence, his repentant words said, “Not my will, but thy will be done;” and also, they savour of Psalm 71:9, “Cast me not off in the time of my old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth.”
Although “God was displeased” with David’s sin, His anger was primarily kindled against Israel—“therefore God smote Israel.” Behold the wisdom of God: Three years famine would be a severe misery upon Israel, but it would not starve David much in the palace; three months fleeing from his enemies would be a sore trial for David, but far less so for the people. But three days of pestilence? It put everyone from David to his lowest subject at risk—all were equally and entirely dependent upon God alone, regarding who perished and who survived the plague. As in the wilderness, “when He slew them, then they sought Him: and they returned and inquired early after God,” Psalm 78:34.
THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): Temptations come not by chance, nor out of the earth, nor merely from the devil; but God ordereth them for His own glory and our good.
THE EDITOR: Do we now understand the significance of Christ’s words to His disciples, before He went to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane? “He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one,” Luke 22:36. “Here are two swords,” said His disciples. “It is enough,” Jesus replied. Peter used one sword, an arm of the flesh, to cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant. But Jesus used the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, to heal the servant’s ear, saying, “suffer ye thus far,” Luke 22:49-51; Ephesians 6:17. “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds,” 2 Corinthians 10:4.
