2 Samuel 24:25

_AND DAVID BUILT THERE AN ALTAR UNTO THE LORD, AND OFFERED BURNT OFFERINGS AND PEACE OFFERINGS. SO THE LORD WAS INTREATED FOR THE LAND, AND THE PLAGUE WAS_ David ... offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. There seems to have been two sacrifices-the first expiatory, the second a thanksgiving for the cessation of the pestilence (see the notes at 1 Chronicles 21:26). Burnt offerings might be offered without a priest anywhere; and although it may appear probable, from some passages of Scripture (1 Samuel 11:15), as well as the present, that peace offerings might be offered by non-Levitical Israelites, yet when these passages are fully examined, they do not support such a conclusion. [In that which is under review, the Septuagint contains a remarkable addition at the end o

18-25 God's encouraging us to offer to him spiritual sacrifices, is an evidence of his reconciling us to himself. David purchased the ground to build the altar. God hates robbery for burnt-offering. Those know not what religion is, who chiefly care to make it cheap and easy to themselves, and who are best pleased with that which costs them least pains or money. For what have we our substance, but to honour God with it; and how can it be better bestowed? See the building of the altar, and the offering proper sacrifices upon it. Burnt-offerings to the glory of God's justice; peace-offerings to the glory of his mercy. Christ is our Altar, our Sacrifice; in him alone we may expect to escape his wrath, and to find favour with God. Death is destroying all around, in so many forms, and so suddenly, that it is madness not to expect and prepare for the close of life....

Verse 2 Samuel 24:25. _DAVID - OFFERED BURNT-OFFERINGS_] And that these sacrifices were pleasing to the Lord, is evident from a circumstance marked in the parallel place, 1 Chronicles 21:26: _David called upon the Lord, and he answered him from heaven by_ _fire upon the altar of burnt-offering_. _THE PLAGUE WAS STALLED_] Jerusalem did not share in the common calamity, seventy thousand being the whole that were slain throughout the land. THIS book is unfinished, and requires 1 Chronicles 22, 1 Chronicles 23,...

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 BUILT THERE AN ALTAR UNTO THE LORD,.... After he had made the purchase: AND OFFERED BURNT OFFERINGS AND PEACE OFFERINGS; the one to expiate the sin or sins committed, the other to give thanks for the intimation given, that the plague would be stayed upon this: SO THE LORD WAS ENTREATED FOR THE LAND; was pacified and prevailed upon to remove the pestilence from it; which was signified by fire descending upon the altar of burnt offering, which showed the sacrifice was accepted, and by the angel being ordered to put his sword into its sheath, 1 Chronicles 21:26; and the Targum is, "and the Lord received the prayer of the inhabitants of the land:'' AND THE PLAGUE WAS STAYED FROM ISRAEL; no more died of the pestilence, either at Jerusalem, or in any other part of the land Israel....

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...

THERE. See note on 1 Chronicles 22:1....

Purchase of Araunah's threshingfloor and erection of an altar there 18. _Gad came_ By direction of the angel, according to 1 Chronicles 21:18. Gad's message was the answer to David's prayer, the announcement to him of the purpose of mercy described in 2 Samuel 24:16. David was still in Jerusalem, praying perhaps at the tent in which the Ark was, when he saw the appearance of the angel hovering above the neighbouring hill, and apparently about to strike the city....

_The Plague Stayed._ 2 Samuel 24:16-25 16 And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand. And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing place of Araunah the Jebusite. 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. 18 And Gad came that day to David, and said unto him, Go up, rear an altar unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 19 And David, according to the saying of Gad, went up as the Lord commanded. 20 And Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him: and Araunah went out, and

THE NUMBERING OF THE PEOPLE, AND ITS PENALTY In punishment for David's sin in numbering the people, God sends a pestilence, which slays 70,000 men. In gratitude for the stay of the plague, David erects an altar in the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite....