1 Chronicles 21:1

_AND SATAN STOOD UP AGAINST ISRAEL, AND PROVOKED DAVID TO NUMBER ISRAEL._ Satan stood up against Israel. God, by withdrawing His grace at this time from David, permitted the Tempter to prevail over him; and as the result of this successful temptation was the entail of a heavy calamity as a punishment from God upon people, it might be said that "Satan stood up against Israel." "Satan" has not hitherto been used in the sacred history as a name for the Devil. For the true meaning of the term, see the note at 2 Samuel 24:1. 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

CHAPTER XXI _David is tempted by Satan to take the numbers of the people of_ _Israel and Judah_, 1, 2. _Joab remonstrates, but the king is determined, and Joab pleads_ _in vain_, 3, 4. _He returns, and delivers in the number to the king, but reckons_ _not Levi and Benjamin_, 5. _The Lord is displeased, and sends Gad to offer David his choice_ _of three great national calamities; famine, war, or pestilence_, 6-12. _David submits himself to God, and a pestilence is sent, which_ _destroys_

As the books of Scripture are arranged in our Version, Satan is here for the first time by name introduced to us. He appears not merely as an “adversary” who seeks to injure man from without, but as a Tempter able to ruin him by suggesting sinful acts and thoughts from within. In this point of view, the revelation made of him here is the most advanced that we find in the Old Testament. The difficulty in reconciling the statement here, “Satan provoked David,” etc. with that of Samuel, “the Lord moved David,” etc. 2 Samuel 24:1 is not serious. All temptation is permitted by God. When evil spirits tempt us, they do so by permission (Job 1:12; Job 2:6;...

EXPOSITION This very important chapter in David's history is the parallel of 2 Samuel 24:1, which contains some details not found here, _e.g._ the route taken by those who went to number Israel (2 Samuel 24:5), and omits others. This chapter furnishes one of the clearer proofs (in respect of what it supplies, _not _found in Samuel) that its indebtedness is not to that book, but to a work open as well to the compiler of Chronicles as to the writer of Samuel. Its contents fall into five sections. 1. David's command to number the people, with Joab's remonstrances (2 Samuel 24:1). 2. The means taken to rouse David to a sense of his sin, and

1 Chronicles 21:1. _And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel._ Israel had greatly offended and grieved God, and it was to be punished. God punished one sin by another: the sin of David works for the chastisement of a sinful people. 1 Chronicles 21:2. _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._ He had got proud, he had begun to depend upon the number of his people. In truth, it was a large population under his sway, five millions or more, and he, that had been a shepherd lad, that in his early youth had trusted in his God, now thinking himself a great man, somewhat in the spirit of Nebuchadnezzar, begins t

10. THE NUMBERING OF THE PEOPLE AND THE PUNISHMENT CHAPTER 21 _ 1. David's failure in numbering the people (1 Chronicles 21:1)_ 2. David's confession and the message of God (1 Chronicles 21:8) 3. David's answer and the punishment (1 Chronicles 21:13) 4. The altar in the threshing floor of Ornan (1 Chronicles 21:18) On the alleged discrepancy between the statement in 2 Samuel 24:1 “And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and He moved (lite

1 CHRONICLES 21:1 TO 1 CHRONICLES 22:1 THE NUMBERING OF THE HOSTS; THE PUNISHMENT (see notes on 2 Samuel 24:1). There are many variations from the corresponding passage in 2 S., and it is uncertain whether the Chronicler used any other source or not. 1 Chronicles 21:1. And Satan stood up: in 2 Samuel 24:1 the temptation comes from Yahweh; the Chronicler altered this as unfitting in view of the developed doctrine of God which had supervened. In the earlier literature the term Satan means adversary ...

SATAN. See note on 2 Samuel 24:1. TRESPASS. guilt. See Exodus 30:11. The Tabernacle was erected with the _ransom_ paid for 600,000. The site of the Temple obtained at the cost of 70,000 souls....

_And Satan stood up against Israel_ In 2 Sam. "And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel," a former occasion being at the time of the famine (2 Samuel 21:1). By _Satan_("adversary") is meant some hostile spiritual being, such as is mentioned in Job 1:6 ff.; Zechariah 3:1 ff., the very opposite in fact of a guardian angel such as the Michael of Daniel 10:13; Daniel 10:21; Daniel 12:1. _and provoked_ R.V. AND MOVED, as 2 Sam., the Heb. word being t

SATAN STOOD UP— _An adversary stood up._ Le Clerc. See the note on 2 Samuel 24:1; 2 Samuel 24:25. Bishop Warburton observes (perhaps the reader will think with rather too much refinement) upon this passage as follows: "This evil Being [Satan] was little known to the Jewish people till about this time: their great lawgiver, where he so frequently enumerates and warns them of the snares and temptations which would draw them to transgress the law of God, never once mentions this capital enemy of heaven: but as the fulness of time drew near, they were made more and more acquainted with this their capital enemy. When Ahab was suffered to be infatuated, (see on 1 Kings 22:19;...