Henry, in his commentary, gives us a useful summary of this chapter.
‘As this rehearsal makes no mention of David’s sin in the matter of Uriah, so neither of the troubles of his family that followed upon it, not a word of Absalom’s rebellion, or Sheba’s. But David’s sin, in numbering the people, is here related, because, in the atonement made for that sin, an intimation was given of the spot of ground on which the temple should be built. Here is, 1. David’s sin, in forcing Joab to number the people, 1 Chronicles 21:1-6. 2. David’s sorrow for what he had done, as soon as he perceived the sinfulness of it, 1 Chronicles 21:7-8. 3. The sad dilemma he was brought to, when it was put to him to choose how he would be punished for this sin, and what rod he would be beaten with, 1 Chronicles 21:9-13. 4. The woeful havoc which was made by the pestilence in the country, and the narrow escape which Jerusalem had from being laid waste by it, 1 Chronicles 21:14-17. 5. David’s repentance, and sacrifice, upon this occasion, and the staying of the plaque thereupon, 1 Chronicles 21:18-30. This awful story we met with, and meditated upon, 2 Samuel 4.’
In this final chapter, we read that the Lord’s anger burned against Israel once again, 1 Chronicles 21:1 / 2 Samuel 24:1. We know when God’s anger is let loose, then the consequences for those on the receiving end wasn’t going to end well. In 2 Samuel 24:1, it tells us that God incited David against Israel.
We must be careful how we interpret this because we could understand this to mean that God incited David to do something sinful to punish Israel for some sin which isn’t mentioned. However when we read 1 Chronicles 21:1, where it says, ‘Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel’, along with what is written here, we can understand that this means that God allowed Satan to tempt David as He allowed Satan to tempt Job, Job 1:8-12.
David tells Joab and the commanders of his army to take a census and count how many people there were among Israel and Judah, from Dan to Beersheba, 1 Chronicles 21:2 / 2 Samuel 24:2 / Judges 20:1 / 1 Samuel 3:20 / 2 Samuel 3:20 / 2 Samuel 17:11.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following, concerning Joab.
‘This very bad man saw that the measure now recommended by the king was a wrong one, and might be ruinous to the people, and therefore he remonstrates against it in a very sensible speech; but the king was infatuated, and would hear no reason.’
The reason for the counting of people was possibly a lack of faith in God on David’s part, 1 Chronicles 21:3-4 / 2 Samuel 24:3-4, and so God was going to teach Israel not to trust in the strength of their army but to trust in God who was working through their army. God was angry with Israel because they didn’t trust that He was working in and through their army.
They began at Aroer, south of the town in the gorge, and then went through Gad and on to Jazer, 2 Samuel 24:5. These places are mentioned in Deuteronomy 2:36, and they formed the southern boundary of the land taken by Israel from Sihon.
Next they went to Gilead and the region of Tahtim Hodshi, and on to Dan Jaan and around toward Sidon, 2 Samuel 24:6 / 1 Chronicles 5:10. Then they went toward the fortress of Tyre and all the towns of the Hivites and Canaanites and finally, they went on to Beersheba in the Negev of Judah, 2 Samuel 24:7.
It took them nine months and twenty days to finish, 2 Samuel 24:8 / / 1 Chronicles 27:24. Joab now tells David the number of fighting men and we are told that there were eight hundred thousand able-bodied men who could handle a sword in Israel and in Judah five hundred thousand, 1 Chronicles 21:5 / 2 Samuel 24:9.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The number given in 2 Samuel 24:5-9, is different than the sum arrived at here. To attempt to reconcile them in every part is lost labour, better at once acknowledge what cannot be successfully denied, that although the original writers of the Old Testament wrote under the influence of the Divine Spirit, yet we are not told that the same influence descended on all copiers of their words, so as absolutely to prevent them from making mistakes.’
Although Joab and his men went almost everywhere in Israel, they didn’t fully obey David’s commands because they left out the tribes of Levi and Benjamin from the census, and because he found David’s commands repulsive, 1 Chronicles 21:6 / 1 Chronicles 27:24.
It appears that David came to his senses after he had counted the fighting men. He didn’t need to be rebuked and told he had sinned by a prophet as he did earlier with Nathan, 2 Samuel 12:7-14. He openly confesses his sin to God but he knows he has to pay the consequences for his actions, 1 Chronicles 21:8 / 2 Samuel 24:10 / 2 Samuel 24:1.
Before David got up the next morning, the word of the LORD had come to Gad the prophet, David’s seer, Gad, 1 Chronicles 21:9 / 2 Samuel 24:12. He tells him he has three choices, 1 Chronicles 21:10 / 2 Samuel 24:12, on how he will be punished.
Either Israel as a nation could endure seven years of famine, 1 Chronicles 21:11-12 / 2 Samuel 24:13 / Ezekiel 14:13-21 / Genesis 41:27 / Genesis 41:30, or David himself could endure three months as a fugitive, 1 Chronicles 21:12 / 2 Samuel 24:13, or Israel could suffer three days of plagues, 1 Chronicles 21:12 / 2 Samuel 24:13.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘In 1 Chronicles 21:12, the number is three, not seven and here the Septuagint has three, the same as in Chronicles, this is no doubt the true reading, zain, SEVEN, being mistaken for gimel, THREE. A mistake of this kind might be easily made from the similarity of the letters.’
David chooses the three days of plagues, 1 Chronicles 21:13 / 2 Samuel 24:14.
As a result of David’s sin and his choice, seventy-thousand people died, 1 Chronicles 21:14 / 2 Samuel 24:15.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘It is the most destructive plague recorded as having fallen upon the Israelites. In the plague that followed the rebellion of Korah there died 14,700, Numbers 16:49, in the plague, on account of Baal-Peor, 24,000, Numbers 25:9 / 1 Corinthians 10:8.’
The plague came to end by God’s command when it reached Jerusalem at the threshing floor of Araunah, the Jebusite, 1 Chronicles 21:15 / 2 Samuel 24:16.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘When David saw the angel that smote the people, both he and Ornan and his four sons saw him and were affrighted, 1 Chronicles 21:20. These threshing-places, we have already seen, were made in the open air. In the parallel place, 1 Chronicles 21:15 / 1 Chronicles 21:20, this person is called Ornan.’
Notice it was the angel of the LORD who was at the threshing floor, 1 Chronicles 21:15 / 2 Samuel 24:16. Who is this angel of the LORD? This is a Christophany, which suggests that this is a preincarnate appearance of Christ, Genesis 12:7. Remember the word ‘angel’ in Hebrew is ‘malak’ and it simply means messenger. Christ is God not an angel, Genesis 16:13.
Haynes Jr, in his commentary, says the following.
‘A study of these passages reveals that the Angel of the Lord appeared in human form, Genesis 18:2 / Genesis 22:1-18 / Hebrews 13:2, and performed normal human functions, Genesis 32:24 / Numbers 22:23 / Numbers 22:31, yet he was an awe-inspiring figure, Genesis 32:30 / Judges 6:22 / Judges 13:22, exhibiting divine attributes and prerogatives including predicting the future, Genesis 16:10-12, forgiving sin, Exodus 23:21, and receiving worship, Exodus 3:5 / Judges 13:9-20.’
David looked up and saw the angel of the LORD standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand extended over Jerusalem and so, David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown, 1 Chronicles 21:16.
When David saw the angel of the LORD was striking down the people, he said to the LORD, ‘I have sinned, I, the shepherd, have done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Let your hand fall on me and my family,’ 1 Chronicles 21:17 / 2 Samuel 24:17.
Ellicott, in his commentary, says the following.
‘David seeks to take all blame to himself, and prays that punishment may fall only upon him and his father’s house. But, without mooting the question as to how far the people actively shared in David’s sin, his prayer was impossible to be granted. Such was the divinely ordained federal relation between the ruler and his people that they were necessarily involved in the guilt of their head.’
Gad, David’s seer, told David to build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, 1 Chronicles 21:18 / 2 Samuel 24:18. Some believe that this site is where the temple was going to be eventually built.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘This place is supposed to be Mount Moriah, on which, according to the rabbis, Cain and Abel offered their sacrifices, where Abraham attempted to sacrifice Isaac, and where the temple of Solomon was afterwards built.’
David obeys God and when Araunah looked, he turned and saw the angel and his four sons who were with him hid themselves, 1 Chronicles 21:20. When he saw David and his officials coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before David with his face to the ground, 1 Chronicles 21:21 / 2 Samuel 24:19-20.
Araunah asks why David is here and David tells him he wants to buy his field so he can build an altar to the LORD, so that the plague may be stopped, 1 Chronicles 21:22 / 2 Samuel 24:21.
Although Araunah wanted to give his threshing floor to David for free, 1 Chronicles 21:23 / 2 Samuel 24:22-23, but David insist on paying for it, 1 Chronicles 21:24 / 2 Samuel 24:24.
He pays fifty shekels not only for the land but also for the oxen and the threshing sledges and ox yokes of wood, 2 Samuel 24:24. 1 Chronicles 21:25, says that David paid six-hundred shekels, this would be the price for the entire surrounding area.
So David buys the threshing floor from Araunah as the place to build the altar, 1 Chronicles 21:25 / 2 Samuel 24:25. After building the altar and sacrificing a burnt offering and fellowship offering, the Lord answered David’s prayer and stopped the plague completely, 1 Chronicles 21:26 / 2 Samuel 24:25.
The altar was built in order to thank God for sparing the nation of Israel, 1 Chronicles 21:18-26. God now speaks to the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath, 1 Chronicles 21:27. When David saw that the God had answered him on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there, 1 Chronicles 21:28.
Selman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Having seen his prayers answered and his sacrifices accepted, the site had already become a ‘house of prayer’ and a ‘temple for sacrifices’, 2 Chronicles 7:12 / Isaiah 56:7.’
The tabernacle which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time on the high place at Gibeon but David couldn’t go before it to inquire of God, because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the LORD, 1 Chronicles 21:29-30.
It’s interesting to note that God, through Moses, said that this threshing floor would be the very spot in Jerusalem, where the future temple should be built, Deuteronomy 12:11.