2 Samuel 24:1-9

David and the Census of the People

1 Again Yahweh [was] angry with Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, "Go count Israel and Judah."

2 The king said to Joab, the commander of the army who [was] with him: "Please go about through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba, and count the people that I may know the number of the people."

3 Then Joab said to the king, "May Yahweh your God increase the people a hundred times {what they are} as the eyes of my lord the king are seeing. But my lord the king, why does he desire this thing?"

4 But the word of the king prevailed over Joab and over the commanders of the army, so Joab and the commanders of the army went out from before the king to count the people of Israel.

5 They crossed over the Jordan and camped at Aroer to the south of the city, which [was] in the middle of the wadi of Gad, and up to Jazer.

6 Then they went to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim Hodshi. They came to Dan Jaan and around to Sidon

7 and came to the fortress of Tyre and all the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites. Then they went out to the Negev of Judah at Beersheba.

8 They went about through all the land, and they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.

9 Then Joab gave the number of the counting of the people to the king. Israel [was] eight hundred thousand {valiant warriors} wielding the sword, and the men of Judah [were] five hundred thousand.

2 Samuel 24:1-9 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO SECOND SAMUEL 24

In this chapter an account is given of David's numbering of the people, 2Sa 24:1-9; of the sense he had of his sin, and of his acknowledgment of it; and of the Lord's displeasure at it, who sent the prophet Gad to him, to propose three things to him, one of which he was to choose as a punishment for it, 2Sa 24:10-13; when he chose the pestilence, which carried off a great number of the people, 2Sa 24:14-17; and David was directed to build an altar to the Lord in the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite, with whom he agreed for it, and built one on it, and offered upon it, and so the plague was stayed, 2Sa 24:18-25.

Footnotes

• [a]. The parallel passage in 1 Chr 21 names the "he" as Satan
• [b]. Literally "as them and as them"
• [c]. Literally "men of ability"