21:1-6, Cf. 1And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
There fell down many slain, because the war was of God. 5:22
Trivia: What mighty man killed two lion-like men of Moab and a lion in pit on a snowy day?
1And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
Satan inspired David to have a census. [1]
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.
Go number Israel and Judah.
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?
Why do you want to have a census?Everyone in Israel is your servant.
Why bring guilt on 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.
7And 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.
David said to God,
I have sinned greatly by having the census. [3]
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.
God said to David's seer, Gad,
Go and say to David,
This is what God says,You have three choices.Choose one of them and I'll do it to you.
11 So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Choose thee
12Either 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.
So Gad came to David and said to him,
Which would you prefer? [4]
- Three years of famine.
- Three months of being defeated by your enemies.
- Three days of pestilence.
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.
David said to Gad,
I am in big trouble.Let's leave it up to God, since he is so merciful. [5]
Just don't let me fall into the hand of man.
14So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
God sent a pestilence on Israel, which killed 70,000 men. [6]
15And 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.
Then God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. [7]
But while he was destroying it, God repented [8], and said,
I've killed enough people.Put down your hand.
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.
When David saw the angel with a sword over Jerusalem, he and the elders in Israel put on sackcloth and fell on their faces.
17And 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.
I'm the one who had the census.So I have sinned, but what have these people done?
Please stop killing them.
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.
25So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight.
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.
30But David could not go before it to enquire of God: for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the LORD.
Of course, this is a ridiculously high number for a tribal armies in 1000 BCE.
(The United States had 1,347,106 active duty soldiers in 2018.)
So God killed aroung 200,000 people in the pestilence, including women and children.
I guess God took David's non-answer as a choice for option three -- or maybe God just chose for him.
DWB: God killed 70,000 because David had a census that God (or Satan) told him to do
Hey, that wasn't part of the deal! (See v.12)
