2 Samuel 24

2 Samuel 24:1

JjlND again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. Because they had followed Absalom, says Abarbinel, and afterward Sheba theson of Biehri; for which they had not been yet sufficiently punished. But it is more likely, it was for their luxury, now that plenty was restored to them, after the sore famine that fell upou thenj upon the score of the Gibeonites. And he moved David against them.’] Or, David was moved; that is, by Satan, as it is expounded in the first book of the Chronicles, xxi. 1. But Abarbinel thinks it is as if he had said, The anger of the Lord, which was kindled against Israel, moved David, &c. That is, the same sin which made God angry with Israel, was the cause that David was seduced in this thing, that they might be punished. To say, Go, number Israel and Judah.] To give command that an account should be taken of the number of all the people. *

2 Samuel 24:2

For the king said to Joab the captain of the host. Accordingly it no sooner came into his heart, but he gave orders about it to the principal commander of his army. Which teas with him ] Who always, when they were in war, attended on him. Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba.] From one end of the country to the other,* For Dan (as I have before observed) was the utmost bouuds of it in the north, as Beer-sheba was in the south. And number ye the people, that I may know the number of the people.] Joab was to take proper officers with him, to assist him in this business; so that there might be an exact account given. (See ver. 4.)

2 Samuel 24:3

And Joab said unto the king, Now the Lord thy God add unto the people (how many soever they be) a hundred-fold, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see it. It appears by this, that Joab was a great courtier, as well as a great captain; who knew how to divert the king from wliat he did not like, if good words and wishes would have done it. But why doth my lord the king delight in this thing?] For which he thought there was no reason; and as it would be troublesome and chargeable, so there might be much danger in it; as he expresses it in 1 Chron. xxi. 3.

2 Samuel 24:4

Notwithstanding theking’s word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the host. Who joined, it seems, with Joab to divert the king from this purpose; in whieh.he was fixed and immoveable. I And Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence of the king to number the people of Israel.] It is most likely, that their inferior officers went with the captains to expedite the business,: ^ x

2 Samuel 24:5

And they passed over Jordan. They,went first into the eastern part of the country; and so by the northern poasts to.the west; and then to the south.:.\ t. And pitched in Aroer.] These words seem to import, that they pitched their tents in the field; and thither summoned the neighbouring towns to come into them;.which, was.very troublesome, and at last proved grievous; as appears by the book of Chronicles. On the right side of the city that lieth in the midst of the river of Gad, and towards Jazer.] We no.where read of such a river; which, in the margin, is translated. the valley of Gad, But Jazer was a town in that tribe, (Numb. xxxii. 35.) ) < i;?■

2 Samuel 24:6

And they came to Gilead, and to the land. of Tahtim-hodshi. It is in vain to, seek after this land, which is not mentioned in the book of Joshua, but.it is likely was near to Gilead; and had been lately recovered, some think, from other people, and now inhabited by the Israelites. (See the margin of our Bibles.).- And they came, to Dan-jaan, and about to Zidon.] Not to the. city of Zidon, for that was not in their power, but to the coast about it.

2 Samuel 24:7

And came to the t strong hold of Tyre. To the territory near it. < •.. \ -And to all the cities of the Hivites, and Canaanites.] Who lived in those north-west parts of the country. And they went out to the south of Judah.] Having, taken account of all the towns upon the sea-coast (which was in the west), they turned to the south, into the tribe of Judah..Even to Beer-sheba.] Which was in the utmost limits of the country on that side.

2 Samuel 24:8

So when they had gone through all the land. But not numbered all the people; for the work grew so tedious, that they omitted Levi and Benjamin, as we read 1 Chron. xxi. 6,, /. They came, to Jerusalem at the end of nine, montlts and twenty days.] They could not well dispatch it in less time; an account being to be taken of every city and village in the whole country.;

2 Samuel 24:9

And Joab gave up the number of the people unto the king. All the officers brought in their particular sums to Joab; who cast them up, and they amounted in all to the number following, • And there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sivord.] They did not, it seems, reckon women and children, and old men; nor such as were not fit for war. And the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.] There is a great difference between this account and that in the Chronicles. For there (1 Chron, xxi. 5.) the men. of Israel are said to be three hundred thousand more than are here mentioned; and, on the contrary, the men of Judah. are said to be thirty thousand less. Of the former of which there is a plain account, that in this book the standing legions are not numbered: which were very well known, they serving under twelve cpmmandcrs so many monthsj A COMMENTARY UPON [chap. x*iv. (1 Chron. xxvii. 1, &c.) but in tho book of the Chronicles all these arc taken into the number there mentioned. For tho Jews observe in Halicoth Olam, that there being twenty-four thousand who waited every month (which makes in all two hundred eighty-eight thousand), allowing a thousand officers (as we cannot well allow less) to every twenty-four thousand, there will be the twelve thousand wanting; which, added to the eight hundred eighty-eight thousand, makejust three hundred thousand: which, added to the eight hundred thousand here mentioned, make up the eleven hundred thousand mentioned in the Chronicles.’ The like account Bochartus gives of the next difficulty, that if twenty-four thousand legionary soldiers be added of the tribe of Judah to the four hundred and seventy thousand, it comes near to five hundred thousand, (Hieroz. par. i. lib. ii. cap. 38.) But others think there is no nefcd of this; it being usual in Scripture to mention a round sum: either of men or of years, when some wero wanting. So that though there were no more than four hundred and seventy thousand, yet they might be said to bo five hundred thousand. Or, as they say in Halicoth Olam, the-tribe of Benjamin (who were neighbours to Judah) aTO reckoned here in this book, who were omitted in the Chronicles. (1 Chron. xxi. 6.)

2 Samuel 24:10

And David’s heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. When he ordered it, he was possessed with other thoughts; and did not seriously reflect upon what he had done, until God touched his heart with a sense of his guilt after the sin was committed. And David said unto the Lord, I have sinned greatly in that I have done.] It is made a great doubt by interpreters what this sin was, and wherein the hcinousness of it consisted. The common opinion is, that as there was something 6fvanity arid ostentation in him, when hehad a mind to know how populous his country was, so it quite made him forget the half shekel that was due upon such occasions, by the appointment of the law, Exod. xxx. 12. And this was no small sin, not to pay God his dues, in such plenty and -abundance as they now enjoyed. But if that was the meaning of Moses, it cannot well be thought that David was cither ignorant, or unmindful of it, having made the law his study day and night. Bertram therefore thinks his fault was, that he numbered those who were under twenty years old, contrary to the order in the law, Exod. xxx. 14. xxxviii. 2G, &c. but I see no foundation for this; but rather the quite contrary is asserted in the book of the Chronicles. Therefore Dr. Lightfoot fancies David had a covetous project in his mind, to lay a capitation tax (as we now speak) upon every poll throughout the kingdom. But such conjectures Deing without ground, some reject all other interpretations, and rely upon tiiis; that the numbering of the people was a thing contrary to the fundamental promise made by God to Abraham, that his seed should increase so, as to be like the stars for multitude: which is given as a reason why the number of the people was not taken exactly, 1 Chron. xxvii. 23. and Seems to imply, that there was a general notion received among the Jews, that since God promised to increase them bey6nd number, none ought to go about to take the number of them, for this might seem to savour of infidelity, and mistrust of God’s promise. -But those words on which this reason relies (in 1 Chron. xxvii. 23.) only give a rea- C7 Jf son why David did not number all from twenty years old, and under: which if he had gono about to do (i.-e. reckon the whole nation), it might have seemed to cross the promise: but sinco it was only those who were above twenty years old whom he ordered to be numbered, I cannot look upon it as a contempt or mistrust of God’s word: but, after all, I think we must content ourselves with what Italbagsays(whom Abarbinel after the examination of other opinions follows), that David being the anointed’of the Lord, and tho sweet singer of Israel, made flesh his arm, and confided in the number of his people: in which such a king as he should not have placed his confidence, but in tho Lord his God; whom none can resist, and can save by few, as well as by many. Unto which Abarbinel adds, that the greatness of a sin is not always to be measured by the sin itself, but by tho quality and dignity of him that committeth it: as Moses and Aaron were punished for a small sin, which excluded them from the good land: which was not proportionable to the sin, but to the condition.of the offenders, who should have given a better example to the people. Thus he. Aridnow, I beseech thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.]* Since lie condemned himself, and begged pardon, he hoped he might escape the punishment which he deserved. But he was deceived; because not only he, but his people, had offended,’ and upon other accounts deserved to be punished/ *

2 Samuel 24:11

For when David teas up in the morning, the word of the Lordcame unto the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying. The words seem to import that David w r as not touched in conscience, till Gad came and told him how angry God was.with him. He is called David’s seer, because he was his domestic prophet, (who is the same with a seer, 1 Sam! ix. 9.) with whom he was wont to advise in all difficult cases, (1 Sam. xxii. 5.) and kept a record of his memorable, acts, (1 Chron. xxix. 29.)

2 Samuel 24:12

Go and say unto David, Thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three things; choose one of them, that I may do it unto thee. Now it had been a proper time, as Abarbinel observes, for David to have fallen down before God, and deprecated his displeasure in thosewords, (ver. 10.) " I have sinned greatly in what I have done/’ &c. But he saw" the sentence was passed upon him absolutely; and therefore he submits unto it. •Ver. 13. So Gad came and told him.] That he was sent by God with a message to him. And said unto him, Shall seven years offanwie comeunto theein thy land?] In the book of the’ Chronicles bnly three years of famine are propounded;’ which is far more likely than seven: for it better agrees with the three months’ flight before his enemies, and the three days’ pestilence. And therefore, not only Grotius, but Bochartus also here read three years, following the LXX. who have mj rgia, whom most of the ancients follow, as Bochartus observes in his Hierofcoicon, par. i. lib. ii. cap. 38. Yet Josephus here hath seven years: and many think that Gad at first propounded seven years: ■‘but afterward, at David’s prayer, shortened them to three. Other solutions are in every interpreter, who adhere to this reading of seven years. (Sec Biixtorf s Vindic.* Vcrit. Hebr. par. ii. cap. 2. and cap. 8. p. 523.) Or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days* pestilence in thy CHAP, XXIV.] THE SECOND BOOK OF SAMUEL. land?] These were the three; sore judgments wherewith God commonly afflicted them for their sins; who now was 30 gracious, as to give him his choice which of them he would suffer r for one of them was peremptorily resolved/ Now advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.] There seems to be no great need to take time to consider which of these to choose; the last being the shortest, and an immediate stroke from the hand of God, who is full of tender mercy and compassion. But in this Gad expresses the clemency of God, w T bo /would. not hastily inflict any punishment upon him.

2 Samuel 24:14

And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait; let us now fall into the hand of the Lord (for his mercies @re great), and let’ me not fall into the hand of man,. He gcems to leave it to God to send either famine or. pestilence (for both come fromGod’s hand), and desires. only that men might not be the instruments of his punishment. For as they are wont to be cruel, so, they make no distinction between good and bad,.but destroy allalike. This is admirably expressed by the son of Sirach, in Ecclus. ii. 17, 18. They that fear the Lord will prepare their heart, and humble their souls in his sight, saying, We will fall into the hands of the Lord, and not into the hands of men; for as his nwjesty is, so is his mercy. - \

2 Samuel 24:15

So the ^Lord. sent a pestilence upon Israel. Ttie symptoms of which were very diverse, if we may believe Josephus. For some; hesaith, died suddenly in intolerable pain: others wasted away, and left nothing to be buried but skin and bones, their bodies being consumed by the* disease: others were suddenly choked^ or struck blind, &c. * From the morning.] For that time when Gad delivered the message, and David made his choice; which was in the morning, as Xve read before, (ver. 11.) Even to the time appointed.] There are those who by the time appointed understand to the end of three days, mentioned by Gad, as.the time appointed by the Lord for the continuance of. this plague. But this is quite contrary to what fo!lows,-that God repented him of the evil; and commanded the angel that smote the people to stay his hand. Therefore the LXX. translate it better,?a>c &/>ac apfarovy until dinner-time: and so Procopius Gazeeus. Certain it is, that moed signifies some part of that day when the plague began: and that must be either noon, or the evening. “But, as-Bdchartus hath observed, the morning and evening are theparts of the day most opposite in Scripture (of which he gives many instances), and therefore so be here understands it, that it continued from morning to the evening. For moed properly signifies an assembly: and therefore.the time moed he thinks is tho time when the people met for evening prayer; about the ninth hour of the day. Which prayer, beforethe building of the temple, was made at the tabernacle, or in their synagogues. And therefore the tabernacle is frequently called ohel moed: and the synagogues are called in Psal. lxxiv.18. Moade El. So that he makes account this pestilence lasted no more than nine hours: which was the eighth part of three days. And there died of the people, from Dan to Beer-sheba, seventy thousand men.] If it had raged three days, and in every nine hours had killed so many, above the third part of those who had been numbered would have died by this plague. But; as Kimchi here observes, by the great mercy of God, the time was contracted. It is a frivolous observation of some of the Jews, that because it is not said seventy thousand anashim, but only isch, which commonly signifies a single person, that Abishai died of this plague^ who was worth seventy thousand of the common people. Nor doth the observation of Grotius seem to be altogether true; who, in his second book, (de Jure Belli et Paris, cap. 21. sect. 17.)saith, " Hsec poena erat non populi, sed Davidis;” Tim ivas the punishment, not of the people, but of David:;quoting that saying of an ancient Christian writer (Quaest. ad Orthodoxos), ILfc/>orar?i Ttfiojptarwv ^apTTjKOTwv fiamXltov, v Tifjoopia rovXaov, The bitterest punishment of delinquent kings, is that which is inflicted upon their people. But it.is certain the people here had also offended: for it is said in the very, beginning of this chapter, that God was angry with Israel. And as for what David saith, Tver. 17.) These sheep, what have they done? it is spoken out of his great affection.to them; whose offences he did, not know so Avell as his own: and therefore desired they might be spared, and he punished. I. ■ i Ver. 1G, And when the angel stretched out, his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy [ it,Ahe Lord repented him of the evil) and said unto the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough; stay now thine hand.] God did not change his mind, but only revoked that which he had decreed upon a certain condition; which was, that three days’ pestilence should come upon the country, unless David and the people repented; which he seeing they did, (1 Chron. xxi. 16.) he shortened the time,, and would not let the angel proceed above an eighth part of it.. •;:;’ - •

2 Samuel 24:17

And David spake unto the Lord, tvhen he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and 1 have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done?. Like a good man, he reflected only pn his own sin, in numbering the people; but did not think of theirs in deposing him lately, and setting up Absalom. (which.Theo^ doret, Procopius Gazaeus, and others, think was the crime for which they were punished), which he had forgiven, but God thought fit. to punish; who by their. silence may b& thought to have approved the fact of David; And besides, the loss of so many people was a. punishment of the king himself, as was before observed. * -:’?;;;.’ Let thy hand;! pray thee, be against me, and against my father’s house.] That is, against his kindred, who. did not dissuade him from the vanity of numbering the people, but perhaps encouraged him in it..*-’. \

2 Samuel 24:18

And Gad came that day to David, and said unto him. By the express command of the Lord, (1 Chron.’ xxi. 18, 19.) Go up, rear an altar tinto the Lord in tJte thrashing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.] This thrashing-floor was on the Mount Moriah; the place where Abraham offered up his son, and where, the temple was built by SoIomQn.. (See 2 Chron. iii. 1.) Of which Eupolemus, a heathen writer, takes notice, saying, that God shewed David by an angel the place where the temple should be built. (Sec Euscbius’s Prcepar. Evang. lib. ix. cap. 30.) Tho Jews will have it, that it was here Abel and Cain offered their sacrifices; (sec Sclden, lib. iii. de Syncdr. p. 199. 431.) nay, that it was the place where Adam was created; according to a saying of their doctors, “Adam was created out of the place of his expiation.” (See G. Vorstius upon Pirke Eliezer, p. 1C3.)

2 Samuel 24:19

And David, according to the saying of Gad; tvent up as the Lord commanded. That is, he went the next moment after he received the command.

2 Samuel 24:20

And Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming on towards him: and Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king on his face upon the ground. As the manner was, and still is, in the eastern countries.

2 Samuel 24:21

And Araunah said, Wherefore is my lord the king come tip unto thy servant?. It may be he thought it too great an honour; and therefore desired to know the meaning of it. And David said, To buy the thrashing-floor of thee, to build an altar unto the Lord, that the plague may be stayed from the people.] By offering a sacrifice to appease his anger; as ho himself had ordered, (1 Chron. xxi. 26, 27.) v

2 Samuel 24:22

And Araunah said unto David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good unto him: behold, lure be oxen for burnt-sacrifices, and thrashing-instruments and other instruments oftheoxenfor wood.] For when the angel appeared there, he * was thrashing wheat, which’ he offered likewise to David for a meat-offering, (1 Chron. xxi. 20. 23.) And the instruments of the oxen were their yokes, and such as they drew after them to press forth the corn.

2 Samuel 24:23

All these things did Araunah, as a king, give unto the king. The Avords in the Hebrew are, these things tjave Araunah the king unto the king. From whence some infer, that before the taking of Jerusalem he was the king of the Jebusites; or, a man of the greatest authority among them, like a king; or was descended from the blood royal of the Jebusites, as Dr. Lightfoot expresses it. But neither the Greek, nor the Syriac, nor the Arabic copies have the word king: nor was it in many of the Vulgar till Sixtus’s correction; nor in the Chaldee paraphrast in the time of Kimchi, who cites it thus; Araunah gave to the king what the king asked of him. And, as Bochartus observes^ Araunah (or Oman) being mentioned fourteen times in the holy books, it is a wonder he should not be styled a king, but only here. (Hieroz. par. i.lib. i. cap. 38.) But it is likely he was a very rich man, as Josephus reports: whom the king spared “when he took the fort of Zion; either because he was a lover of the Israelites, or had done some good office unto David. And Araunah said unto the king. The Lord thy God accept thee,] He thought himself abundantly satisfied, if God pleased to grant David’s request; which he besceched him to do; for no doubt ho was a proselyte, earnestly desiring the happiness of the nation; into which he was incorporated. ■‘Ver. 24. And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I willsur£ly buy it of thee at ji price,: neither will I offer burnt-offerings unto the Lord my God of that which cost me nothing.] Whence is that of Solomon, (Prow iii. 9.) " Honour the Lord frith thy substance;” which the Greek thus translates, Tl/jia tuv Kvptov curb twv htcatwv irovw. Honour the Lord out of thy honest fa6oHrs;that is, out of that’which thou hast acquired by thy honest industry. So David bought the thrashing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.] In the Chronicles we read, according to our translation, that he gave him six hundred shekels of gold by weight, which Bochartus thus reconciles; that in one place he speaks of shekels of gold, and in the other of shekels of silver. Whose proportion is twelvefold; so that fifty shekels of gold are in value as much as six hundred shekels of silver. He quotes a place out of Plato in his Hipparchus, which proves that gold and silver held this proportion. And then he thus translates this place in Samuel, He bought the floor and the oxen becescph, for money; viz. for fifty golden shekels. So the word ceseph often signifies money in general, of whatsoever metal it be; as appears from this very history, wherein David tells Ornari that he will buy the field of him, becesephmalo, which we translate, at its full price, 1 Chron. xxi. 24. And then it follows, he gave Oman shikle zahav, shekels of gold, mish* kail shesh meoth, in value six hundred vulgar, or silver, shekels. See Hicrozoicon, par. i.- lib. ii. cap. 38. Avhere the word mishkall he acknowledges commonly signifies weight; yet here denotes value: as in 2 Sam. xii. 30. The design of Ezra being to shew, that the fifty shekels he gave for the floor and oxen were not silver (which were most common), butshekels of gold; every one of which was worth twelve of silver: so that those fifty shekels were equivalent to six hundred silver ones. But there is a shorter w r ay of solving this difficulty, by supposing, that for the thrashing-floor and the oxen he gave only fifty shekels of silver: but all the ground about it (out of which the courts of God’s house were afterward made) cost him six hundred shekels of gold. Ven 25. And David built there an altar unto the Lord; and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings.] BurntofFcrings were prayers to God that he would remove this plague: and peace-offerings were acknowledgments of God’s goodness, who had already given David hopes of this mercy.. So the Lord was entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.] As plainly appeared by (Jod’s sending fire down from heaven to consume the sacrifices: and the angel also, who appeared with a flaming sword over Jerusalem, being commanded to put it up into his sheath, (1 Chron. xxi. 26, 27.) From hence David concluded God would bo more placable in this placo than any other; and therefore took counsel to build the temple here..