2 Samuel 24:1-9

David’s census

1 The LORD burned with anger against Israel again, and he incited David against them: Go and count the people of Israel and Judah.

2 So the king said to Joab and the military commanders who were with him, "Go throughout all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beer-sheba, and take a census of the people so I know how many people there are."

3 Joab said to the king, "May the LORD your God increase the number of people a hundred times while the eyes of my master the king can still see it! But why does my master the king want to do this?"

4 But the king's word overruled Joab and the military commanders. So Joab and the commanders left the king's presence to take a census of the Israelites.

5 They crossed the Jordan River and began from Aroer and from the town that is in the middle of the valley of Gad, then on to Jazer.

6 They continued to Gilead and on to Kadesh in Hittite territory. They came to Dan and went around to Sidon.

7 They went to the fortress of Tyre and to all the towns of the Hivites and the Canaanites. They went out to Beer-sheba in the arid southern plain of Judah.

8 At the end of nine months and twenty days, after going through the entire country, they came back to Jerusalem.

9 Joab reported to the king the number of the people who had been counted: in Israel there were eight hundred thousand strong men who could handle a sword; in Judah the total was five hundred thousand men.

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]. LXX and 2 Sam 24:4; MT commander
• [b]. LXX; MT camped in Aroer south of the city
• [c]. Hebrew uncertain; correction on to the area beneath Hermon
• [d]. LXXL; MT Dan-jaan