C M 21:1. Incitement.
N 21:2-8. The sin.
M 21:9-15-. Punishment.
N 21:-15-22:1. Explanation.
923 B.C.
1 Chronicles 21)
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel. (See 2 Sam. 24:1)
N b 2. Command of David.
c 3,4. Objection.
b 5,6. Obedience to command.
c 7,8. Result.
2 And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, "Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it."
3 And Joab answered, "The Lord make His people an hundred times so many more as they be: but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants? why then does my lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of guilt to Israel? (See Ex. 30:11-16. The Tabernacle was erected with the ransom paid for 600,000. This site of the Temple obtained at the cost of 70,000 souls)
4 Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.
922 B.C.
5 And Joab gave the sum (see 2 Sam. 24:9) of the number of the people to David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and a hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.
6 But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king's word was abominable to Joab.
7 And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel.
8 And David said to God, "I have sinned greatly, (David's repentance and confession preceded Gad's visit to him) because I have done this thing: but now, I beseech You, do away the perverseness of Your servant; for I have done very foolishly.
M d 9-12. Divine offers.
e 13. Choice made.
e 14. Choice carried out.
d 15-. Divine forbearance.
9 And the Lord spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying,
10 "Go and tell David, saying, 'Thus says the Lord, 'I offer you three things: you choose one of them, that I may do it to you.' ' "
11 So Gad came to David, and said to him, "Thus says the Lord, 'Choose you
12 Either three years' famine; (see 2 Sam. 24:13) or three months to flee before your foes, (see 2 Sam. 24:13) while that the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three days the sword of the Lord, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the borders of Israel.' Now therefore advise yourself what word I shall bring again to Him that sent me."
13 And David said to Gad, "I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the Lord; for very many are His mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man.
14 So the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
15 And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the Lord beheld, and He consoled Himself of the affliction, and said to the angel that destroyed, "It is enough, stay now your hand.
N O -15. Angel. Station.
P 16-. David. Seeing.
P -16,17. David. Humiliation.
O 18-22:1. Angel. Message.
And the angel of the Lord stood by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. (Or Aruanah in 2 Sam. 24)
16 And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the Lord stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem.
Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.
17 And David said to God, "Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done? let your hand, I pray you, O Lord my God, be on me, and on my father's house; but not on Your people, that they should be plagued."
O Q 21:18. Angel's command to David.
R 21:19-26. David. Site of Altar.
Q 21:27. Yehovah's command to Angel.
R 21:28-22:1. David. Site of Temple.
18 Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and set up an altar to the Lord in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
R f 19. Obedience. Visit commenced.
g 20,21. Reception.
g 22-25. Negotiation.
f 26. Obedience. Object effected.
19 And David went up according to the saying of Gad, which he spoke in the name of the Lord.
20 And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons with him were hiding themselves themselves. Now Ornan had been threshing wheat.
21 And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshing-floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.
22 Then David said to Ornan, "Grant me the place of this threshing-floor, (as in Ruth 4:10. Referring to the whole place, afterward the Temple area. Not as in 2 Sam. 24:24, which was merely the threshing-floor, as in Ruth 3:2. Hence 600 shekels of gold for the former, but only 50 shekels of silver for the latter. 2 distinct transactions) that I may build an altar therein to the Lord: you shall grant it me for the full price: that the plague may be stayed from the People."
23 And Ornan said to David, "Take it to you, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes: lo, I give you the oxen also for burnt offerings, and the threshing sledges (composed of bulk of timber, with sharp stones or iron spikes beneath. Cp. Isa. 41:15. 2 Sam. 24:22. Heb. mōrag. Called today moarej) for wood, and the wheat for the meal offering; I give it all."
24 And king David said to Ornan, "No; but I will verily buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is yours for the Lord, nor offer up burnt offerings without cost."
25 So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight. (approx. 132 lbs. of gold)
26 And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the Lord; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering. (All sacrifices accepted by God were consumed by fire from heaven, not kindled on earth. See Gen. 4:4)
27 And the Lord commanded the Angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof. (Occurs only here.)
R h 21:28. David's sacrifice.
i 21:29. Station of Tabernacle.
h 21:30. David's fear.
i 22:1. Site of Temple.
28 At that time when David saw that the Lord had answered him in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there. (i.e. by the priests)
29 For the dwelling-place of the Lord, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering, were at that season in the high place at Gibeon. (Cp. 16:39. 2 Chron. 1:3. 1 Kings 3:4)
30 But David could not go before it to inquire of God: for he was afraid (to delay) because of the sword of the Angel of the Lord. (Otherwise Gibeon was only about 8 miles away.)