1 Chronicles 21 Footnotes

21:1 “Satan” is not mentioned in the parallel passage (2Sm 24:1). There, the Lord is stated to be the cause. He was angry with David, although we are not told why. The Hebrew word satan (meaning “accuser”) occurs elsewhere (Jb 1:12; 2:6; Zch 3:1-2) with a definite article: “the accuser.” Here it occurs without the definite article, implying it is a proper noun, “Satan.” The “count,” as the following verses make clear, was a military census. Such a census for the purpose of mobilizing an army was authorized by Nm 26:2. The difference is that previous censuses were authorized by the Lord. We’re not given any details as to what caused David to prepare to mobilize, but it is clear that even his general Joab knew better.

21:5 If one assumes the Bible is not historically trustworthy unless external evidence demonstrates to the contrary, then these numbers are not in line with the archaeological evidence of the population of Palestine in the tenth century BC. However, since archaeological data is by definition what remains of ancient civilizations, this text is documentary evidence that such interpretations of the archaeological data are too pessimistic. And certainly the land could have supported such population.

21:8 Here is evidence that the Chronicler had no intention of “whitewashing” David or any other character about whom he wrote. David had his faults, but not every existing story about them served the author’s purposes. The Chronicler included this story of the census, but omitted the Bathsheba affair (see 20:1 with 2Sm 11:1). One major difference between the two events is that while David’s sin and murder affected only a small number of people, his ordering the census had consequences for many thousands. Put another way, the Chronicler chose to omit personal sins, but he included sins of a king that had negative consequences for “all Israel.”