INTRODUCTION TO SECOND SAMUEL 24 In this chapter an account is given of David's numbering of the people, 2 Samuel 24:1; of the sense he had of his sin, and of his acknowledgment of it; and of the Lord's displeasure at it, who sent the prophet Gad to him, to propose three things to him, one of which... [ Continue Reading ]
AND AGAIN THE ANGER OF THE LORD WAS KINDLED AGAINST ISRAEL,.... It had been kindled, and appeared before in sending a three years' famine among them for Saul's ill usage of the Gibeonites, 2 Samuel 21:1; and now it broke forth again, either for some secret sins committed, as Kimchi suggests, or for... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE KING SAID TO JOAB THE CAPTAIN OF THE HOST, WHICH [WAS] WITH HIM,.... Or who was with him, even Joab, who was now at court, and was a counsellor of David, as well as his general; or which army was with Joab, a standing army he had the command of: GO NOW THROUGH ALL THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL, FROM... [ Continue Reading ]
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 numer... [ Continue Reading ]
NOTWITHSTANDING THE KING'S WORD PREVAILED AGAINST JOAB, AND AGAINST THE CAPTAINS OF THE HOST,.... Who it seems were of the same mind with Joab, and were against numbering the people, yet their arguments and remonstrances were of no avail with the king; he was determined it should be done, and laid h... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY PASSED OVER JORDAN,.... To take the number of the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh first: AND PITCHED IN AROER; for it seems that Joab and the captains had the army with them, and the several captains under their command, partly to assist in numbering the people, and... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN THEY CAME TO GILEAD,.... The land of Gilead, half of which was given to the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the other half to the half tribe of Manasseh, Deuteronomy 3:12; which tribes were numbered, and the first of all: AND TO THE LAND OF TAHTIMHODSHI; or the low lands of a new place; it seems... [ Continue Reading ]
AND CAME TO THE STRONG HOLD OF TYRE,.... That is, old Tyre, which stood thirty furlongs from new Tyre, the island y; of which Isaiah 23:1; this must be understood of the parts near unto it; for that itself was not within the land of Israel, and so its inhabitants not to be numbered: AND TO ALL THE... [ Continue Reading ]
SO WHEN THEY HAD GONE THROUGH ALL THE LAND,.... Beginning at the east, and from thence to the north, and then going about to the west, came to the south, which finished their circuit: THEY CAME TO JERUSALEM, AT THE END OF NINE MONTHS AND TWENTY DAYS: they were ten months wanting ten days in numberi... [ Continue Reading ]
AND JOAB GAVE UP THE SUM OF THE NUMBER OF THE PEOPLE UNTO THE KING,.... Having collected from the several captains employed in this work their several particular numbers, he put them together, and gave in the sum total to David: AND THERE WERE IN ISRAEL EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND VALIANT MEN THAT DREW... [ Continue Reading ]
AND DAVID'S HEART SMOTE HIM, AFTER THAT HAD NUMBERED THE PEOPLE,.... For nine or ten months his conscience lay asleep, but now the thing was done, it is awakened, and accuses him for it, and he repents of it; now he began to see the pride and haughtiness of his heart; his vanity and confidence in th... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WHEN DAVID WAS UP IN THE MORNING,.... Which it is probable was very early, he not being able to sleep through the distress of mind he was in; for the words should be rendered, "and David arose in the morning" c, for, as we render them, they seem to imply as if he had no sense of his sin before t... [ Continue Reading ]
GO, AND SAY UNTO DAVID,.... Not my servant David, as Nathan was bid to say to him when it was in his heart to build an house for him, 2 Samuel 7:5; but now he had sinned and displeased the Lord, and therefore it is only plain David: THUS SAITH THE LORD, I OFFER THEE THREE [THINGS]; or lay them befo... [ Continue Reading ]
SO GAD CAME TO DAVID, AND TOLD HIM,.... Said nothing to him about his sin, but correction for it; which confirms it that David was made sensible of his sin before he came to him: AND SAID UNTO HIM, SHALL SEVEN YEARS OF FAMINE COME UNTO THEE IN THY LAND? in 1 Chronicles 21:12, only "three years" are... [ Continue Reading ]
AND DAVID SAID UNTO GAD, I AM IN A GREAT STRAIT,.... Not knowing well which to choose, each of them being so grievous, and an answer being to be returned immediately; but by his next words, and by the event, it seems he chose the pestilence, though that is not expressly said: LET US FALL NOW INTO T... [ Continue Reading ]
SO THE LORD SENT A PESTILENCE UPON ISRAEL,.... Upon the land of Israel, the people of the land, directly employing an angel to go through the coasts of it, and empowering him to inflict a pestilential disease: FROM THE MORNING EVEN TO THE TIME APPOINTED: from the morning the prophet Gad came to Dav... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN THE ANGEL STRETCHED OUT HIS HAND UPON JERUSALEM TO DESTROY IT,.... Which, as it was perhaps the last place where the people were numbered, it was the last to which the plague came: this angel appeared in an human form, standing "between the earth and the heaven"; in the midst of the heaven,... [ Continue Reading ]
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... [ Continue Reading ]
AND GAD CAME THAT DAY TO DAVID,.... Ordered and directed by the angel of the Lord, 1 Chronicles 21:18; AND SAID UNTO HIM, GO UP, REAR AN ALTAR UNTO THE LORD IN THE THRESHING FLOOR OF ARAUNAH THE JEBUSITE: it was too far to go to Gibeon, where the tabernacle was, at such a time of extremity, when th... [ Continue Reading ]
AND DAVID, ACCORDING TO THE SAYING OF GAD, WENT UP AS THE LORD COMMANDED. From the place where he was in a lower part of the city to Mount Moriah, on which was the threshing floor, a place fit for winnowing corn when threshed.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ARAUNAH LOOKED,.... Peeped up out of the place in which he had hid himself with his four sons, for fear of the angel, and which they saw, 1 Chronicles 21:20; AND SAW THE KING AND HIS SERVANTS COMING TOWARDS HIM; he perceived, by the course they steered, that they were coming to him: AND ARAUNA... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ARAUNAH SAID, WHEREFORE IS MY LORD THE KING COME TO HIS SERVANT?.... Which both implies admiration in him, that so great a person should visit him in his threshingfloor; that a king should come to a subject his servant, who should rather have come to him, and would upon the least intimation; it... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ARAUNAH SAID UNTO DAVID, LET MY LORD THE KING TAKE AND OFFER UP WHAT [SEEMETH] GOOD UNTO HIM,.... Build an altar, offer sacrifices of whatsoever he found upon the premises fit for the same, and make use of whatever came to hand proper to perform such service with, as follows: BEHOLD, [HERE BE]... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL THESE [THINGS] DID ARAUNAH, [AS] A KING, GIVE UNTO THE KING,.... The note of similitude as is not in the text; from whence some have thought he was king of the Jebusites before Jerusalem was taken out of their hands, or however was of the royal race, perhaps the son and heir of the then king at... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE KING SAID UNTO ARAUNAH, NAY, BUT I WILL SURELY BUY [IT] OF THEE AT A PRICE,.... And a full price too, 1 Chronicles 21:24; that is, give him as much for it as it was worth: NEITHER WILL I OFFER BURNT OFFERINGS TO THE LORD MY GOD OF THAT WHICH DOTH COST ME NOTHING; which shows an ingenuous sp... [ Continue Reading ]
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 F... [ Continue Reading ]