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Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to take a census of Israel.
Verse 1. Satan. This shews that the Lord only ( Bible.) permitted David’s sin, (2 Kennicott. 24. Worthington.) and in this sense only he is said to have instigated him; ( D.) though we read this was done by the fury of the Lord, or by an evil spirit. Bible.
David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, “Go, count Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring me word, that I may know how many there are.”
Joab said, “May the LORD make his people a hundred times as many as they are. But, my lord the king, aren’t they all my lord’s servants? Why does my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of guilt to Israel?”
Verse 3. Israel, who will be severely punished. Calmet.—Sin is often used in this sense. Vatable.
Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab. Therefore Joab departed and went throughout all Israel, then came to Jerusalem.
Joab gave the sum of the census of the people to David. All those of Israel were one million one hundred thousand men who drew a sword; and in Judah were four hundred seventy thousand men who drew a sword.
Verse 5. The number, and so forth The difference of the numbers here and 2 Kennicott. 24:9 is to be accounted for, by supposing the greater number to be that which was really found, and the lesser to be that which Joab gave in; ( Challoner.) or the transcribers of this place have been inaccurate. Calmet.
But he didn’t count Levi and Benjamin among them, for the king’s word was abominable to Joab.
Verse 6. Number. These might therefore escape the pestilence. D.—For. Hebrew “because the king’s word was abominable to Joab.” We read that Benjamin was numbered unto David. Calmet. 7:5, 11. But that might be on another occasion; or the register continued in the archives, and was not brought to the king. See Calmet. 27:24. Calmet.
God was displeased with this thing; therefore he struck Israel.
David said to God, “I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”
Verse 8. Iniquity. David was guilty, though he retained both faith and hope. Worthington.
The LORD spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying,
Verse 9. Seer, or prophet, whom David kept at court and consulted. He was endued himself with the prophetic spirit.
“Go and speak to David, saying, ‘The LORD says, “I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.”’”
Verse 10. Three; a word omitted in Hebrew but supplied by the Prot. Bible.—“I will bring three things upon thee.” Sept.
So Gad came to David and said to him, “The LORD says, ‘Take your choice:
either three years of famine; or three months to be consumed before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three days of the sword of the LORD, even pestilence in the land, and the LORD’s angel destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.’”
Verse 12. Three years’ famine; which joined with the three foregoing years of famine, mentioned 2 Kennicott. 21 and the seventh year of the land’s resting, would make up the seven years proposed by the prophet. 2 Kennicott. 24:13. Challoner.—Perhaps it would be as well to acknowledge a mistake, (2 Kennicott. Bible.) on account of the similitude of the Hebrew words signifying three and seven: ( Tirinus.) unless the prophet reduced the time from seven to three years; as in Ezechiel (4:15.) God mitigates the severity of his first threat. Sanctius.
David said to Gad, “I am in distress. Let me fall, I pray, into the LORD’s hand, for his mercies are very great. Don’t let me fall into man’s hand.”
Verse 13. Men. Susanna spoke on a different supposition, (Daniel 13:23, Sirach 2:22) of eternal punishment, in consequence of sin. David prefers to be punished by the hand of a tender father, rather than that of an enemy; ( Tirinus. E.) and he does not wish to screen himself from suffering in this world, but offers himself to share in the chastisement of his subjects. Bible.
So the LORD sent a pestilence on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell.
God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was about to destroy, the LORD saw, and he relented of the disaster, and said to the destroying angel, “It is enough. Now withdraw your hand.” the LORD’s angel was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
Verse 15. Took. Hebrew “repented of evil,” taking pity of unhappy victims.—Ornan, or Areuna. Challoner.—He had been king of the Jebusites before David took Jerusalem. Mariana. Tirinus.
David lifted up his eyes, and saw the LORD’s angel standing between earth and the sky, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.
David said to God, “Isn’t it I who commanded the people to be counted? It is even I who have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O LORD my God, be against me and against my father’s house; but not against your people, that they should be plagued.”
Then the LORD’s angel commanded Gad to tell David that David should go up and raise an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
Verse 18. Altar. Hence it appears that holy men erected altars by God’s command. D.
David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in the LORD’s name.
Ornan turned back and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.
Verse 20. Now. Hebrew “and Oranan turned back.”—Angel. Septuagint (Vat.) “the king and his four sons with him, along with Achabin.” Other editions have, “and his four sons hidden with him.” Arab. “and the king, being come near to Aran, he saw David and his,” and so forth Syr. reads in like manner; but says nothing of the children either of David or of Ornan. We do not read that Ornan saw the angel, 2 Kennicott. but this circumstance may be here supplied. It is evident the Septuagint have read melec, “king,” instead of malac, “angel.” Calmet.—Eupolemus says the angel Dianathan shewed David were to build the temple. Eus. Præp. ix. 30.
As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshing floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.
Then David said to Ornan, “Sell me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar to the LORD on it. You shall sell it to me for the full price, that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people.”
Verse 22. Worth. Hebrew “give it me for the full price,” or “worth.” Septuagint “the money was weighed.”
Ornan said to David, “Take it for yourself, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes. Behold, I give the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal offering. I give it all.”
King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will most certainly buy it for the full price. For I will not take that which is yours for the LORD, nor offer a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”
So David gave to Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place.
Verse 25. Six hundred sicles, and so forth This was the price of the whole place on which the temple was afterwards built: but the price of the oxen was fifty sicles of silver. 2 Kennicott. 24:24. Challoner.—Or the fifty sicles were given for the threshing-floor alone. Calmet. D.
A shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.32 Troy ounces, so 600 shekels was about 6 kilograms or about 192 Troy ounces.
David built an altar to the LORD there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on the LORD; and he answered him from the sky by fire on the altar of burnt offering.
Verse 26. Fire, to testify his approbation. ( Worthington. Tirinus.) See Genesis 4:4, 2 Chronicles 7:1. Calmet.—This altar represented the cross, on which the Victim of our reconciliation was offered. D.
Then the LORD commanded the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath.
At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.
For the LORD’s tabernacle, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon.
But David couldn’t go before it to inquire of God, for he was afraid because of the sword of the LORD’s angel.
Verse 30. God. He performed what God had commanded. But he would have offered other voluntary victims at Gabaon, if he had been able. Calmet.—The distance shewed the propriety of building the temple at Jerusalem, ( D.) which was nearly in the centre of the country. Bible.