1 Tawarikh 21:1-5

The Lord Sends a Plague against Israel

21:1 An adversary ¹  opposed ²  Israel, inciting David to count how many warriors Israel had. ³  21:2 David told Joab and the leaders of the army, ⁴  “Go, count the number of warriors ⁵  from Beer Sheba to Dan. Then bring back a report to me so I may know how many we have.” ⁶  21:3 Joab replied, “May the Lord make his army ⁷  a hundred times larger! My master, O king, do not all of them serve my master? Why does my master want to do this? Why bring judgment on Israel?” ⁸ 

21:4 But the king’s edict stood, despite Joab’s objections. ⁹  So Joab left and traveled throughout Israel before returning to Jerusalem. ¹⁰  21:5 Joab reported to David the number of warriors. ¹¹  In all Israel there were 1,100,000 ¹²  sword-wielding soldiers; Judah alone had 470,000 sword-wielding soldiers. ¹³ 

1 Tawarikh 21:2

21:2 David told Joab and the leaders of the army, ¹⁴  “Go, count the number of warriors ¹⁵  from Beer Sheba to Dan. Then bring back a report to me so I may know how many we have.” ¹⁶ 

1 Samuel 24:1-9

David Spares Saul’s Life

24:1 (24:2) When Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, they told him, “Look, David is in the desert of En Gedi.” 24:2 So Saul took three thousand select men from all Israel and went to find ¹⁷  David and his men in the region of ¹⁸  the rocks of the mountain goats. ¹⁹  24:3 He came to the sheepfolds by the road, where there was a cave. Saul went into it to relieve himself. ²⁰ 

Now David and his men were sitting in the recesses of the cave. 24:4 David’s men said to him, “This is the day about which the Lord said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hand, and you can do to him whatever seems appropriate to you.’” ²¹  So David got up and quietly cut off an edge of Saul’s robe. 24:5 Afterward David’s conscience bothered him ²²  because he had cut off an edge of Saul’s robe. 24:6 He said to his men, “May the Lord keep me far away from doing such a thing to my lord, who is the Lord’s chosen one, ²³  by extending my hand against him. After all, ²⁴  he is the Lord’s chosen one.” ²⁵  24:7 David restrained his men with these words and did not allow them to rise up against Saul. Then Saul left the cave and started down ²⁶  the road.

24:8 Afterward David got up and went out of the cave. He called out after Saul, “My lord, O king!” When Saul looked behind him, David kneeled down and bowed with his face to the ground. 24:9 David said to Saul, “Why do you pay attention when men say, ‘David is seeking to do you harm’?

[21:1]  ¹ tn Or “Satan.” The Hebrew word שָׂטָן (satan) can refer to an adversary in general or Satan in particular. There is no article accompanying the term here, which suggests it should be understood generally (cf. NAB “a satan”).

[21:1]  ² tn Heb “stood against.”

[21:1]  ³ tn Heb “and incited David to count Israel.” As v. 5 indicates, David was not interested in a general census, but in determining how much military strength he had.

[21:1]  sn The parallel text in 2 Sam 24:1 says, “The Lord’s anger again raged against Israel and he incited David against them, saying: ‘Go, count Israel and Judah!’“ The version of the incident in the Book of 2 Samuel gives an underlying theological perspective, while the Chronicler simply describes what happened from a human perspective. Many interpreters and translations render the Hebrew שָׂטָן as a proper name here, “Satan” (NEB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). However, the Hebrew term שָׂטָן, which means “adversary,” is used here without the article. Elsewhere when it appears without the article, it refers to a personal or national adversary in the human sphere, the lone exception being Num 22:22, 32, where the angel of the Lord assumes the role of an adversary to Balaam. When referring elsewhere to the spiritual entity known in the NT as Satan, the noun has the article and is used as a title, “the Adversary” (see Job 1:6-9, 12; 2:1-4, 6-7; Zech 3:1-2). In light of usage elsewhere the adversary in 1 Chr 21:1 is likely a human enemy, probably a nearby nation whose hostility against Israel pressured David into numbering the people so he could assess his military strength. For compelling linguistic and literary arguments against taking the noun as a proper name here, see S. Japhet, I & II Chronicles (OTL), 374-75.

[21:2]  ⁴ tn Or “people.”

[21:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “Go, count Israel.” See the note on “had” in v. 1.

[21:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “their number.”

[21:3]  ⁷ tn Or “people.”

[21:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “Why should it become guilt for Israel?” David’s decision betrays an underlying trust in his own strength rather than in divine provision. See also 1 Chr 27:23-24.

[21:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “and the word of the king was stronger than Joab.”

[21:4]  ¹⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[21:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and Joab gave to David the number of the numbering of the army [or “people”].”

[21:5]  ¹² tn Heb “a thousand thousands and one hundred thousand.”

[21:5]  ¹³ tc The parallel text in 2 Sam 24:9 has variant figures: “In Israel there were eight hundred thousand sword-wielding warriors, and in Judah there were five hundred thousands soldiers.”

[21:2]  ¹⁴ tn Or “people.”

[21:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Go, count Israel.” See the note on “had” in v. 1.

[21:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “their number.”

[24:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “to search [for].”

[24:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “upon the face of.”

[24:2]  ¹⁹ tn Or “the region of the Rocks of the Mountain Goats,” if this expression is understood as a place name (cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV, TEV, CEV).

[24:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “to cover his feet,” an idiom (euphemism) for relieving oneself (cf. NAB “to ease nature”).

[24:4]  ²¹ tn Heb “is good in your eyes.”

[24:5]  ²² tn Heb “the heart of David struck him.”

[24:6]  ²³ tn Heb “anointed.”

[24:6]  ²⁴ tn Or “for.”

[24:6]  ²⁵ tn Heb “anointed.”

[24:7]  ²⁶ tn Heb “went on.”