2 Samuel 24:17

_AND DAVID SPAKE UNTO THE LORD WHEN HE SAW THE ANGEL THAT SMOTE THE PEOPLE, AND SAID, LO, I HAVE SINNED, AND I HAVE DONE WICKEDLY: BUT THESE SHEEP, WHAT HAVE THEY DONE? LET THINE HAND, I PRAY THEE, BE AGAINST ME, AND AGAINST MY FATHER'S HOUSE._ David spake (or, had said) ... I have sinned ... but these sheep, what have they done? The guilt of numbering the people lay exclusively with David. But in the body politic as well as natural, when the head suffers, all the members suffer along with it; and, besides, although David's sin was its immediate cause, the great increase of national offences at this time had (2 Samuel 24:1) kindled the anger of the Lord....

16,17 Perhaps there was more wickedness, especially more pride, and that was the sin now chastised, in Jerusalem than elsewhere, therefore the hand of the destroyer is stretched out upon that city; but the Lord repented him of the evil, changed not his mind, but his way. In the very place where Abraham was stayed from slaying his son, this angel, by a like countermand, was stayed from destroying Jerusalem. It is for the sake of the great Sacrifice, that our forfeited lives are preserved from the destroying angel. And in David is the spirit of a true shepherd of the people, offering himself as a sacrifice to God, for the salvation of his subjects....

Verse 2 Samuel 24:17. _BUT THESE SHEEP, WHAT HAVE THEY DONE?_] It seems that in the order of Providence there is no way of punishing kings in their _regal_ capacity, but by afflictions on their land, in which the people must necessarily suffer. If the king, therefore, by his own personal offenses, in which the people can have no part, bring down God's judgments upon his people, (though they suffer innocently,) grievous will be the account that he must give to God. The people generally suffer for the miscarriages of their governors: this has been observed in every age. _Quicquid delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi._ __________________ "When doting monarchs urge Unsound resolves, their subjects feel the scourge." HOR.

Compare the passage in Chronicles. The account here is abridged; and 2 Samuel 24:18 has the appearance of being the original statement....

EXPOSITION 2 SAMUEL 24:1 AND AGAIN THE ANGER OF JEHOVAH WAS KINDLED AGAINST ISRAEL. It is probable that this chapter once stood in intimate connection with 2 Samuel 21:1; and that the famine therein described was followed by a pestilence, of which the blame largely rested upon David, though the sin punished by it was fully shared by the people. In saying that David was moved of Jehovah to number Israel and Judah, the writer acknowledges the great truth that all action, both good and evil, is of God. "Shall there be evil in a city, and Jehovah hath not done it?" (Amos 3:6). While we are taught to pray that we may not be led into temptation, yet trial and temptation are by G

AND DAVID SPAKE UNTO THE LORD,.... In prayer; he and the elders of Israel being clothed in sackcloth, and fallen on their faces, he prayed, not unto the angel, but to Jehovah that sent him; see 1 Chronicles 21:16; WHEN HE SAW THE ANGEL THAT SMOTE THE PEOPLE; in the air over Jerusalem, with a drawn sword in his hand, which made him appear terrible: AND SAID, LO, I HAVE SINNED, AND I HAVE DONE WICKEDLY; in numbering the people: BUT THESE SHEEP, WHAT HAVE THEY DONE? he looked upon himself as the only transgressor, and his people as innocent, and as harmless as sheep; he thought of no sins but his own; these were uppermost in his mind, and lay heavy on his conscience; and it grieved him extremely the his people should suffer on his account: but they were not so innocent as he thought and suggests; and it was not

4. DAVID'S FAILURE: THE ALTAR ON THE THRESHING FLOOR OF ARAUNAH CHAPTER 24 _ 1. The numbering of the people (2 Samuel 24:1)_ 2. The sin acknowledged and Gad's message (2 Samuel 24:10) 3. The pestilence (2 Samuel 24:15) 4. The altar on the threshing floor of Araunah (2 Samuel 24:18) The final chapter of the books of Samuel is of much interest and importance. “And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and He moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.” In...

1 SAMUEL 24. THE CENSUS (J). (_Cf._ p. 292.) This event also may belong to the beginning of David's reign over all Israel. 2 SAMUEL 24:1. Here is another illustration of the imperfect recognition of the moral nature of Yahweh in the primitive documents. No one is conscious of sin, yet Yahweh, for some inscrutable, arbitrary reason, is angry with His people. Accordingly, He induces David to commit an obvious sin, so that He may have a justification for punishing Israel. It is useless to ask why a census was sinful; such ideas go too far back for us to trace their origin (Numbers 31:50 *). In the Priestly Code censuses are taken quite happily. The subsequent advance of religious thought in Israel is indicated by the fact that in...

LO. Figure of speech _Asterismos._ App-6. WICKEDLY. Hebrew. _`avah._ App-44....

The Plague 15. _even to the time appointed_ The meaning of these words, which are not found in Chron., is very doubtful. (1) The E. V. follows the Vulg. _usque ad tempus constitutum_. This would naturally mean until the end of the third day; but the duration of the plague seems to have been mercifully shortened (2 Samuel 24:16). Perhaps _a time appointed_(there is no definite article) might mean a time determined in the counsel of God, before the expiration of the period originally named. (2) Most commentators render UNTIL THE TIME OF ASSEMBLY, i.e. the hour for offering the evening sacrifice, about three o'clock in the afternoon. Cp. 1 Kings 18:29; 1 Kings 18:36;...