2 Samuel 24

DAVID’S SIN IN NUMBERING THE PEOPLE AND ITS PUNISHMENT, 2 Samuel 24:1-25.

Three times in the days of Moses (see Exodus 30:12-16; Exodus 38:25-26; Numbers 1:2; Numbers 26:2) was the census of Israel taken by divine commandment; what particular sin was there, then, in David’s numbering of the people? Evidently none in the mere fact of his taking a census, but his sin was in the motives which prompted him to do it. His motives seem to have been well understood among his chief officers, and were condemned even by such a man as Joab; but they have not been recorded, and we are at a loss to conjecture exactly what they were. They probably originated in feelings of vanity and self-exaltation over the supposed numbers and power of his nation, and possibly he was meditating unworthy schemes of foreign conquest. By a deadly pestilence Jehovah smote his pride and vainglory, and brought him into deep humiliation under his mighty hand. But it must not be overlooked that David’s sin was only the immediate occasion of the plague, while the great cause lay back of this in the numerous sins of the nation; and in the opening verse we are told that the Lord’s anger was kindled against Israel even before David was moved to number the people. The king had, doubtless, been a chief sinner among his people; but many offences against God and the national honour, committed during the insurrections of Absalom and Sheba, and before, had gone unnoticed and unpunished, and had thereby kindled the anger of Jehovah. Compare the parallel history in 1 Chronicles 21:0.