2 Samuel 24:3

_AND JOAB SAID UNTO THE KING, NOW THE LORD THY GOD ADD UNTO THE PEOPLE, HOW MANY SOEVER THEY BE, AN HUNDREDFOLD, AND THAT THE EYES OF MY LORD THE KING MAY SEE IT: BUT WHY DOTH MY LORD THE KING DELIGHT IN THIS THING?_ No JFB commentary on these verses....

1-9 For the people's sin David was left to act wrong, and in his chastisement they received punishment. This example throws light upon God's government of the world, and furnishes a useful lesson. The pride of David's heart, was his sin in numbering of the people. He thought thereby to appear the more formidable, trusting in an arm of flesh more than he should have done, and though he had written so much of trusting in God only. God judges not of sin as we do. What appears to us harmless, or, at least, but a small offence, may be a great sin in the eye of God, who discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart. Even ungodly men can discern evil tempers and wrong conduct in believers, of which they themselves often remain unconscious. But God seldom allows those whom he loves the pleasures they sinfully covet....

Verse 2 Samuel 24:3. _JOAB SAID UNTO THE KING_] This very bad man saw that the measure now recommended by the king was a wrong one, and might be ruinous to the people, and therefore he remonstrates against it in a very sensible speech; but the king was infatuated, and would hear no reason....

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 JOAB SAID UNTO THE KING,.... Not so rudely and insolently as he did on account of his mourning for Absalom, but in a more modest, decent, and polite manner: NOW THE LORD THY GOD ADD UNTO THE PEOPLE (HOW MANY SOEVER THEY BE) AN HUNDREDFOLD; he wished his subjects were an hundred times more numerous than they were: AND THAT THE EYES OF MY LORD THE KING MAY SEE [IT]; that he might live to see with his own eyes so great an increase: BUT WHY DOTH MY LORD THE KING DELIGHT IN THIS THING? he being now old, and therefore it might seem strange to indulge such curiosity, pride, and vanity, and besides quite needless and useless: the numbering of them would not make them more or less; and they were all the king's servants, who were ready to obey him whenever he needed them, whether numbered or not; and it might be prejudicial to them, and bring down the wrath of God upon them, as well as be a...

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...

GOD. Hebrew. _Elohim_. App-4....

The Numbering of the People 1. _again_ The previous manifestation of God's anger referred to was the famine (ch. 21). It is possible that the two narratives stood in close juxtaposition in the original document used by the compiler. _and he moved David against them_ The subject of the verb is Jehovah. The nation had sinned and incurred His anger, and He instigated David to an act which brought down a sharp punishment on the nation. The statement that God incited David to do what was afterwards condemned and punished as a heinous sin cannot of course mean that He _compelled_David to sin, but that in order to test and prove his character He allowed the temptation to assault him. Thus while we read that "God himself tempteth no man" (James 1:13), we are taught to pray "Bring us not into temptation" ...

JOAB SAID UNTO THE KING— It is evident, that this action of David was thought a very wrong step, even by Joab himself, who remonstrated against it, as apprehensive of the bad consequences which might attend it: and therefore _Joab counted not Levi and Benjamin,_ 1 Chronicles 21:6 _because the king's word was abominable to him._ Probably, we do not understand all the circumstances of this affair; but Joab's sense of it, who was no scrupulous man, shews that David's conduct in it was extremely imprudent, and might subject his people to very bad consequences....