2 Samuel 24:1-9

The Census Taken

1 ¹Now ²again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and it incited David against them to say, "³Go, number Israel and Judah."

2 The king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him, "Go about now through all the tribes of Israel, ⁴from Dan to Beersheba, and register the people, that I may know the number of the people."

3 But Joab said to the king, "⁵Now may the LORD your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see; but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?"

4 Nevertheless, the king's word prevailed against Joab and against the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to register the people of Israel.

5 They crossed the Jordan and camped in ⁶Aroer, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad and toward ⁷Jazer.

6 Then they came to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim-hodshi, and they came to Dan-jaan and around to ⁸Sidon,

7 and came to the ⁹fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the ¹⁰Hivites and of the Canaanites, and they went out to the south of Judah, to ¹¹Beersheba.

8 So when they had gone about through the whole land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.

9 And Joab gave ¹²the number of the registration of the people to the king; and there were in Israel ¹³eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.

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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.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 13

1. 1 Chronicles 21:1
2. 2 Samuel 21:1, 2
3. 1 Chronicles 27:23, 24
4. Judges 20:1; 2 Samuel 3:10
5. Deuteronomy 1:11
6. Deuteronomy 2:36; Joshua 13:9, 16
7. Numbers 21:32; Numbers 32:35
8. Joshua 19:28; Judges 1:31
9. Joshua 19:29
10. Joshua 11:3; Judges 3:3
11. Genesis 21:22-33
12. Numbers 1:44-46
13. 1 Chronicles 21:5

Footnotes 4

[a]. Lit "muster"
[b]. Lit "muster"
[c]. Or "Kadesh in the land of the Hittite"
[d]. Lit "muster"