1 Chronicles 21

1Ch 21:1-13.

DAVID

SINS IN

NUMBERING THE

PEOPLE.

1. Satan stood up against Israel--God, by withdrawing His grace at this

time from David

(see on

2Sa 24:1),

permitted the tempter to prevail over him. As the result of this

successful temptation was the entail of a heavy calamity as a

punishment from God upon the people, it might be said that "Satan stood

up against Israel."

number Israel--In the act of taking the census of a people, there is

not only no evil, but much utility. But numbering Israel--that people

who were to become as the stars for multitude, implying a distrust of

the divine promise, was a sin; and though it had been done with

impunity in the time of Moses, at that enumeration each of the people

had contributed "half a shekel towards the building of the tabernacle,"

that there might be no plague among them when he numbered them

(Ex 30:12).

Hence the numbering of that people was in itself regarded as an

undertaking by which the anger of God could be easily aroused; but when

the arrangements were made by Moses for the taking of the census, God

was not angry because the people were numbered for the express purpose

of the tax for the sanctuary, and the money which was thus collected

("the atonement money,"

Ex 30:16)

appeased Him. Everything depended, therefore, upon the design of the

census [BERTHEAU]. The sin of David numbering the

people consisted in its being either to gratify his pride to ascertain

the number of warriors he could muster for some meditated plan of

conquest; or, perhaps, more likely still, to institute a regular and

permanent system of taxation, which he deemed necessary to provide an

adequate establishment for the monarchy, but which was regarded as a

tyrannical and oppressive exaction--an innovation on the liberty of the

people--a departure from ancient usage unbecoming a king of Israel.

3. why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel?--or bring an occasion

of punishment on Israel. In Hebrew, the word "sin" is often used

synonymously with the punishment of sin. In the course of Providence,

the people frequently suffer for the misconduct of their rulers.

5. Joab gave the sum of the number of the children of Israel--It

amounted to one million one hundred thousand men in Israel, capable of

bearing arms, inclusive of the three hundred thousand military

(1Ch 27:1-9),

which, being already enlisted in the royal service, were not reckoned

(2Sa 24:9),

and to four hundred seventy thousand men in Judah, omitting thirty

thousand which formed an army of observation stationed on the

Philistine frontier

(2Sa 6:1).

So large a population at this early period, considering the limited

extent of the country and comparing it with the earlier census

(Nu 26:1-65),

is a striking proof of the fulfilment of the promise

(Ge 15:5).

6. Levi and Benjamin counted he not--If this census was ordered with a

view to the imposition of taxes, this alone would account for Levi, who

were not warriors

(1Ch 21:5),

not being numbered (see on

Nu 1:47-54).

The population of Benjamin had been taken (see on

1Ch 7:6-11),

and the register preserved in the archives of that tribe. This,

however, was taken on another occasion, and by other agency than that

of Joab. The non-numbering of these two tribes might have originated in

the special and gracious providence of God, partly because Levi was

devoted to His service, and Benjamin had become the least of all the

tribes

(Jud 21:1-25);

and partly because God foresaw that they would remain faithful to the

house of David in the division of the tribes, and therefore He would

not have them diminished [POOLE]. From the course

followed in this survey (see on

2Sa 24:4-8),

it would appear that Judah and Benjamin were the last tribes that were

to be visited; and that, after the census in Judah had been finished,

Joab, before entering on that of Benjamin, had to return to Jerusalem,

where the king, now sensible of his great error, gave orders to stop all

further proceedings in the business. Not only the remonstrance of Joab

at the first, but his slow progress in the survey

(2Sa 24:8)

showed the strong repugnance and even horror of the old general at this

unconstitutional measure.

9. the Lord spake unto Gad, David's seer--Although David was himself

endowed with a prophetic gift, yet, in matters relating to himself or

his kingdom, he was in the habit of consulting the Lord through the

medium of the priests; and when he failed to do so, a prophet was sent

on extraordinary occasions to admonish or chastise him. Gad, a private

friend, was occasionally employed as the bearer of these prophetic

messages.

11, 12. Choose thee, &c.--To the three evils these correspond in

beautiful agreement: three years, three months, three days

[BERTHEAU].

(See on

2Sa 24:13).

13. let me fall now into the hand of the Lord . . . let me not fall

into the hand of man--Experience had taught him that human passion

and vengeance had no bounds, whereas our wise and gracious Father in

heaven knows the kind, and regulates the extent, of chastisement which

every one needs.

14, 15. So the Lord . . . sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy

it--The infliction only of the pestilence is here noticed, without

any account of its duration or its ravages, while a minute description

is given of the visible appearance and menacing attitude of the

destroying angel.

15. stood by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite--Ornan was

probably his Hebrew or Jewish, Araunah his Jebusite or Canaanitish,

name. Whether he was the old king of Jebus, as that title is given to

him

(2Sa 24:23),

or not, he had been converted to the worship of the true God, and was

possessed both of property and influence.

16. David and the elders . . . clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their

faces--They appeared in the garb and assumed the attitude of humble

penitents, confessing their sins, and deprecating the wrath of God.

1Ch 21:18-30.

HE

BUILDS AN

ALTAR.

18. the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say--The order about the

erection of an altar, as well as the indication of its site, is

described

(2Sa 24:18)

as brought directly by Gad. Here we are informed of the quarter whence

the prophet got his commission. It is only in the later stages of

Israel's history that we find angels employed in communicating the

divine will to the prophets.

20, 21. Ornan was threshing wheat--If the census was entered upon in

autumn, the beginning of the civil year, the nine and a half months it

occupied would end at wheat harvest. The common way of threshing corn

is by spreading it out on a high level area, and driving backwards and

forwards upon it two oxen harnessed to a clumsy sledge with three

rollers and some sharp spikes. The driver sits on his knees on the box,

while another person is employed in drawing back the straw and

separating it from the grain underneath. By this operation the chaff is

very much chopped, and the grain threshed out.

23. I give thee . . . the threshing instruments for wood--that is, to

burn the sacrifice of the oxen. Very little real import--the haste and the value of the present offered--can be understood in this

country. The offering was made for instant use. Ornan, hereby hoping

to terminate the pestilence without a moment's delay, "gave all," oxen,

the large threshing machine, and the wheat.

25. David gave . . . for the place six hundred shekels of gold--At

first he bought only the cattle and the threshing instruments, for

which he paid fifty shekels of silver

(2Sa 24:24);

afterwards he purchased the whole property, Mount Moriah, on which the

future temple stood. High in the center of the mountain platform rises

a remarkable rock, now covered by the dome of "the Sakrah." It is

irregular in its form, and measures about sixty feet in one direction

and fifty feet in the other. It is the natural surface of Mount Moriah

and is thought by many to be the rock of the threshing-floor of

Araunah, selected by David, and continued by Solomon and Zerubbabel as

"the unhewn stone" on which to build the altar [BARTLETT, Walks

about Jerusalem; STANLEY].

26. David built there an altar--He went in procession with his leading

men from the royal palace, down Mount Zion, and through the intervening

city. Although he had plenty of space on his own property, he was

commanded, under peremptory direction, to go a considerable distance

from his home, up Mount Moriah, to erect an altar on premises which he

had to buy. It was on or close to the spot where Abraham had offered up

Isaac.

answered him by fire from heaven--(See

Le 9:24;

1Ki 18:21-23;

2Ki 1:12;

2Ch 7:1).

28. when David saw that the Lord had answered him . . ., he sacrificed

there--or, "he continued to sacrifice there." Perceiving his sacrifice

was acceptable, he proceeded to make additional offerings there, and

seek favor by prayer and expiatory rites; for the dread of the menacing

angel destroying Jerusalem while he was absent in the center of worship

at Gibeon, especially reverence for the Divine Being, led him to

continue his adorations in that place which God

(2Ch 3:1)

had hallowed by the tokens of His presence and gracious acceptance.