2 SAMUEL 24

2 SAMUEL 24

PARAGRAPH DIVISIONS OF MODERN TRANSLATIONS

NASB	NKJV	NRSV	TEV	NJB (MT versing)
The Census Taken	David's Census of Israel and Judah	The Census, the Plague	David Takes a Census	The Census
24:1-9	24:1-4	24:1-9	24:1-2	24:1-4
			24:3-4
	24:5-9		24:5-9	24:5-8
				24:9
	The Judgment on David's Sin			The Pestilence. God's Forgiveness
24:10-14	24:10-14	24:10-14	24:10	24:10-15a
			24:11-13
Pestilence Sent			24:14-16
24:15-17	24:15-17	24:15-17		24:15b-17
David Builds An Altar	The Altar on the Threshing Floor	The Building of The Altar	24:17	The Building of an Altar
24:18-25	24:18-25	24:18-23	24:18-21a	24:18-23
			24:21b
			24:22-23
		24:24-25	24:24-25	24:24-25

READING CYCLE THREE (see "Bible Interpretation Seminar")

FOLLOWING THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR'S INTENT AT THE PARAGRAPH LEVEL

This is a study guide commentary, which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.

Read the chapter in one sitting. Identify the subjects. Compare your subject divisions with the five translations above. Paragraphing is not inspired, but it is the key to following the original author's intent, which is the heart of interpretation. Every paragraph has one and only one subject.

First paragraph
Second paragraph
Etc.

CONTEXTUAL INSIGHTS

This chapter (2 Samuel 24) is parallel to 1 Chronicles 21.

Here is a link to my exegetical notes from 1 Chronicles 21.

I will comment here only on the differences between the two accounts.

WORD AND PHRASE STUDY

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 24:1-9
¹Now again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and it incited David against them to say, "Go, number Israel and Judah." ²The king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him, "Go about now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and register the people, that I may know the number of the people." ³But Joab said to the king, "Now may the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see; but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?" ⁴Nevertheless, the king's word prevailed against Joab and against the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to register the people of Israel. ⁵They crossed the Jordan and camped in Aroer, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad and toward Jazer. ⁶Then they came to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim-hodshi, and they came to Dan-jaan and around to Sidon, ⁷and came to the fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and of the Canaanites, and they went out to the south of Judah, to Beersheba. ⁸So when they had gone about through the whole land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. ⁹And Joab gave the number of the registration of the people to the king; and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.

24:1 "the anger of the Lord" This chapter has several anthropomorphic phrases.

the anger of YHWH, v. 1
the hand of YHWH, vv. 14,17
YHWH relented, v. 16

SPECIAL TOPIC: THE PROBLEMS AND LIMITATIONS OF HUMAN LANGUAGE

SPECIAL TOPIC: ANTHROPOMORPHIC LANGUAGE TO DESCRIBE DEITY

▣ "number" There are two possibilities as to why this act was a sin.

The people did not fulfill Exod. 30:12 (see Josephus, Antiq. 7.13.1).
It was a faithless act on David's part failing to acknowledge that it was YHWH bringing the victory, not the number of Israeli soldiers.

24:5-8 This geographical information is lacking in the 1 Chronicles 21 parallel.

24:6
NASB, JPSOA	"the land of Tahtim-hodshi"
NKJV	"the land of Tahtim Hodshi"
NRSV	"Kadesh in the land of the Hittites"
TEV	"Kadesh in Hittite territory"
REB, NJB, LXX	"the land of the Hittites, to Kadesh"
Peshitta	"the land of the Hittites"

The UBS Text Project, p. 284, gives the LXX version a "C" rating (considerable doubt). There is no place name that fits the MT version. Some scholars suppose that "Hodshi" may be a corrupt form of "month" (חדשׁ, BDB 294, v. 18) and thereby the phrase is a time reference (see NIDOTTE, vol. 2, p. 30).

24:7 "Hivites and Canaanites" See SPECIAL TOPIC: PRE-ISRAELITE INHABITANTS OF PALESTINE.

24:9 The numbers are very different between 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21. One wonders if a different textual tradition is behind one of them. See note at v. 13.

▣ "seer" See SPECIAL TOPIC: PROPHET (the different Hebrew terms).

24:13 "seven years" The LXX and 1 Chr. 21:12 have "three years." This "three" may correspond to

the three things of v. 12
the three months of v. 13
the three days of v. 13

The UBS Text Project, p. 286, gives the MT's "seven years" a "B" rating (some doubt).

The number differences can be caused by

copyist's error
different traditions of Hebrew texts

A new book that has helped me deal with these issues is John H. Walton and D. Brent Sandy, The Lost World of Scripture, which deals with how oral cultures, such as the ANE, pass on their traditions. If these number issues are a faith problem to you, please read this book.

When it comes to the number problems related to the reigns of kings, please consult Edwin R. Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings.

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 24:10-14
¹⁰Now David's heart troubled him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord, "I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, please take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly." ¹¹When David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, ¹²"Go and speak to David, 'Thus the Lord says, "I am offering you three things; choose for yourself one of them, which I will do to you."'" ¹³So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, "Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days' pestilence in your land? Now consider and see what answer I shall return to Him who sent me." ¹⁴Then David said to Gad, "I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of the Lord for His mercies are great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man."

24:14 "but do not let me fall into the hand of man" It is possible that the "adversary" mentioned in 1 Chr. 21:1 was not "Satan" (there is no DEFINITE ARTICLE) but a close neighboring nation that David feared.

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 24:15-17
¹⁵So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand men of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. ¹⁶When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the calamity and said to the angel who destroyed the people, "It is enough! Now relax your hand!" And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. ¹⁷Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking down the people, and said, "Behold, it is I who have sinned, and it is I who have done wrong; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let Your hand be against me and against my father's house."

24:15 "the appointed time" This probably refers to the time of the evening "continual," about 3 pm (i.e., 1 Kgs. 18:29,36; Dan. 9:21; Acts 3:1).

24:16 "Araunah the Jebusite" The MT has האורנה (the Qere form is ארונה, BDB 72, which most versions accept).

Jebusites were the Canaanite inhabitants of Jebus, later Jerusalem. The citadel was not captured until David's reign.

SPECIAL TOPIC: MORIAH, SALEM, JEBUS, JERUSALEM, ZION

24:17 "David saw the angel" As I read this chapter I wonder if this spiritual sight is connected to Joab's words of v. 3, "while the eyes of my lord the king still see." Sin causes the sinner to not be able to perceive the spiritual realm.

It is surely possible that v. 3 refers only to physical life!

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 24:18-25
¹⁸So Gad came to David that day and said to him, "Go up, erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite." ¹⁹David went up according to the word of Gad, just as the Lord had commanded. ²⁰Araunah looked down and saw the king and his servants crossing over toward him; and Araunah went out and bowed his face to the ground before the king. ²¹Then Araunah said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?" And David said, "To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the Lord, that the plague may be held back from the people." ²²Araunah said to David, "Let my lord the king take and offer up what is good in his sight. Look, the oxen for the burnt offering, the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. ²³Everything, O king, Araunah gives to the king." And Araunah said to the king, "May the Lord your God accept you." ²⁴However, the king said to Araunah, "No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. ²⁵David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Thus the Lord was moved by prayer for the land, and the plague was held back from Israel.