1 Chronicles Chapter 21
1 Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to take a census of Israel.
2 David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, "Go, count Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring me word, that I may know how many there are."
3 Joab said, "May the LORD make his people a hundred times as many as they are. But, my lord the king, aren't they all my lord's servants? Why does my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of guilt to Israel?"
4 Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab. Therefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, then came to Jerusalem.
5 Joab gave up the sum of the census of the people to David. All those of Israel were one million one hundred thousand men who drew a sword; and in Judah were four hundred and seventy thousand men who drew a sword.
6 But he didn't count Levi and Benjamin amongst them; for the king's word was abominable to Joab.
7 God was displeased with this thing; therefore he struck Israel.
8 David said to God, "I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly."
9 The LORD spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying,
10 "Go and speak to David, saying, 'The LORD says, "I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you." ' "
11 So Gad came to David, and said to him, "The LORD says, 'Take your choice:
12 either three years of famine; or three months to be consumed before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three days the sword of the LORD, even pestilence in the land, and the LORD's angel destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.' "
13 David said to Gad, "I am in distress. Let me fall, I pray, into the LORD's hand; for his mercies are very great. Don't let me fall into man's hand."
14 So the LORD sent a pestilence on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell.
15 God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was about to destroy, the LORD saw, and he relented of the disaster, and said to the destroying angel, "It is enough. Now withdraw your hand." the LORD's angel was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16 David lifted up his eyes, and saw the LORD's angel standing between earth and the sky, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.
17 David said to God, "Isn't it I who commanded the people to be counted? It is even I who have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O LORD my God, be against me, and against my father's house; but not against your people, that they should be plagued."
18 Then the LORD's angel commanded Gad to tell David that David should go up and raise an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
19 David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in the LORD's name.
20 Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.
21 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, "Give me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar to the LORD on it. You shall sell it to me for the full price, that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people."
23 Ornan said to David, "Take it for yourself, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes. Behold, I give the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal offering. I give it all."
24 King David said to Ornan, "No; but I will most certainly buy it for the full price. For I will not take that which is yours for the LORD, nor offer a burnt offering that costs me nothing."
25 So David gave to Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place.
26 David built an altar to the LORD there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on the LORD; and he answered him from the sky by fire on the altar of burnt offering.
27 Then The LORD commanded the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath.
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.
29 For the LORD's tabernacle, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon.
30 But David couldn't go before it to enquire of God; for he was afraid because of the sword of the LORD's angel.
Footnotes
- Verse 25 (Shekel)
- A shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.32 Troy ounces, so 600 shekels was about 6 kilograms or about 192 Troy ounces.
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1 Chronicles Chapter 21 Guide
The cause of David's action in numbering Israel is distinctly stated to be Satan. Therein lies a revelation of its nature. The one sin of Satan is that of pride and ambition, and this was the sin of David. His victories had resulted in the lifting up of his spirit, and in arrogance he would know the number of the people that he might make his boast therein. In this he persisted, notwithstanding the protest of Joab.
The chief interest of this chapter for us lies in the revelation of the true character of David. His sins were the lapses and accidents of his life. This is not to condone them. It is, however, to emphasize that the habitual set of his life was far otherwise than these sins suggest, and the deepest truth concerning him is revealed, not by the failures, but by his action afterwards. He confessed his sin frankly; chose to fall into the hands of God rather than any other for punishment; mourned over the death of the people because of his conviction that the sin was his, and refused to offer on the altar anything that had cost him nothing.
These things reveal, in order, his sense of sin and knowledge of himself, his knowledge of God and confidence in God's tender mercies, his love of his people, and his profound sense of what was due to God in worship. He sinned surely, but, after all, he was a man after God's own heart, and this is never more clearly manifest than in these dark days when God dealt with him for his wrongdoing. By comparison with the men of his own time, and the other kings of the nation, he stands pre-eminent in real godliness.
From "An Exposition of the Whole Bible" by G. Campbell Morgan.
1 Chronicles Chapter 21 Commentary
Chapter Outline
- David's numbering the people.
Verses 1-30
No mention is made in this book of David's sin in the matter of Uriah, neither of the troubles that followed it: they had no needful connexion with the subjects here noted. But David's sin, in numbering the people, is related: in the atonement made for that sin, there was notice of the place on which the temple should be built. The command to David to build an altar, was a blessed token of reconciliation. God testified his acceptance of David's offerings on this altar. Thus Christ was made sin, and a curse for us; it pleased the Lord to bruise him, that through him, God might be to us, not a consuming Fire, but a reconciled God. It is good to continue attendance on those ordinances in which we have experienced the tokens of God's presence, and have found that he is with us of a truth. Here God graciously met me, therefore I will still expect to meet him.
From the "Concise Commentary on the Bible" by Matthew Henry.