_A.M. 2986. B.C. 1018._ David causes Joab to number the people, 1 Chronicles 21:1. He repents, 1 Chronicles 21:7; 1 Chronicles 21:8. God gives him his choice of three judgments, and he chooses the pestilence, 1 Chronicles 21:9. The havoc made thereby: Jerusalem spared, 1 Chronicles 21:14; 1 Chronic... [ Continue Reading ]
_Satan stood up against Israel_ Before the Lord and his tribunal, to accuse David and Israel, and to ask God's permission to tempt David. _Standing_ is the accuser's posture before men's tribunals; and consequently the Holy Scriptures (which use to speak of the things of God after the manner of men,... [ Continue Reading ]
_Why will he be_ Or, _why should this be; a cause of trespass_ Or, _an occasion of punishment;_ (Hebrew words, which signify _sin_, being often used for the _punishment_ of sin,) _to_, or _against Israel?_ Why wilt thou provoke God by this sin to punish Israel? He speaks thus because God commonly pu... [ Continue Reading ]
_Levi and Benjamin counted he not_ Partly for the following reason, and principally by God's gracious providence to Levi, because they were devoted to his service; and to Benjamin, because they were the least of all the tribes, having been almost extinct, (Judges 21.,) and because God foresaw that t... [ Continue Reading ]
_God was displeased with this thing_ Because it was done without any colour of necessity, and out of mere curiosity and ostentation, as David's own conscience afterward told him, which therefore smote him, as is related 2 Samuel 24:10. _Therefore he smote Israel_ As is particularly related in the fo... [ Continue Reading ]
_I have done very foolishly_ I see plainly, and acknowledge, that I have been very foolish in thinking to found my security on the number of my people, instead of depending solely on thy almighty power and sovereign help.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Either three years of famine_ In 2 Samuel 24:13, it is said the prophet propounded to _David seven years of famine_, concerning which see the note there. _Let me fall now into the hand of the Lord_ The pestilence is more properly called _the hand_, or _sword of the Lord_, than other common calamiti... [ Continue Reading ]
_There fell of Israel_ He was proud of the number of his people, but God took a course to make them fewer. Justly is that which we are proud of taken from us, or imbittered to us.... [ Continue Reading ]
_God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it_, &c. This seems to import that there were more angels than one employed to effect this destruction in different parts of the country: and that the angels, sent to Jerusalem, had begun to slay some of its inhabitants. _The Lord beheld, and repented him... [ Continue Reading ]
_The angel commanded that David should go and set up an altar _ This command was a blessed token of reconciliation. For if God had been pleased to kill him, he would not have commanded, because he would not have accepted, a sacrifice at his hands.... [ Continue Reading ]
_His four sons with him hid themselves_ Because of the glory and majesty in which the angel appeared, which men's weak natures are not able to bear; and from the fear of God's vengeance, which now seemed to be coming to their family.... [ Continue Reading ]
_David gave six hundred shekels of gold_, &c. How this is reconciled with 2 Samuel 24:24, where it is said, _David bought the thrashing-floor_, &c, _for fifty shekels of silver_, see note there.... [ Continue Reading ]
_He answered him from heaven by fire_ Hebrew, _by fire from heaven;_ which was a sign of God's acceptance. The fire that might justly have fastened on the sinner, fastened upon the sacrifice and consumed it. Thus _Christ was made sin and a curse_ for us, and it pleased the Lord to bruise him, that t... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then he sacrificed there_ When he perceived that his sacrifice offered there was acceptable to God, he proceeded to offer more sacrifices in that place, and did not go to Gibeon, as otherwise he should have done.... [ Continue Reading ]
_David could not go before it_ Did not dare to go before the tabernacle, where the altar stood. _To inquire of God_ Hebrew, לדרשׁ, _lidrosh, to seek God_, or humbly to entreat his favour by prayer and sacrifice. _For he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the Lord _ That is, when he saw... [ Continue Reading ]