---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -  1 Chronicles 21"
description: "CHAPTER 21   :-. DAVID SINS
IN NUMBERING THE
PEOPLE. 1. Satan stood up against
Israel—God, by withdrawing His grace at this time from David
(see on  :-),"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/1-chronicles/21"
---

CHAPTER 21

. DAVID SINS
IN NUMBERING THE
PEOPLE.

**1. Satan stood up against
Israel**—God, by withdrawing His grace at this time from David
(see on ), permitted the
tempter to prevail over him. As the result of this successful
temptation was the entail of a heavy calamity as a punishment from
God upon the people, it might be said that "Satan stood up
against Israel."
**number Israel**—In the
act of taking the census of a people, there is not only no evil, but
much utility. But numbering Israel—that people who were to become
as the stars for multitude, implying a distrust of the divine
promise, was a sin; and though it had been done with impunity in the
time of Moses, at that enumeration each of the people had contributed
"half a shekel towards the building of the tabernacle,"
that there might be no plague among them when he numbered them (). Hence the numbering of that people was in itself regarded
as an undertaking by which the anger of God could be easily aroused;
but when the arrangements were made by Moses for the taking of the
census, God was not angry because the people were numbered for the
express purpose of the tax for the sanctuary, and the money which was
thus collected ("the atonement money," ) appeased Him. Everything depended, therefore, upon the
design of the census [BERTHEAU].
The sin of David numbering the people consisted in its being either
to gratify his pride to ascertain the number of warriors he could
muster for some meditated plan of conquest; or, perhaps, more likely
still, to institute a regular and permanent system of taxation, which
he deemed necessary to provide an adequate establishment for the
monarchy, but which was regarded as a tyrannical and oppressive
exaction—an innovation on the liberty of the people—a departure
from ancient usage unbecoming a king of Israel.

**3. why will he be a cause of
trespass to Israel?**—or bring an occasion of punishment on
Israel. In *Hebrew,* the word "sin" is often used
synonymously with the punishment of sin. In the course of Providence,
the people frequently suffer for the misconduct of their rulers.

**5. Joab gave the sum of the number
of the children of Israel**—It amounted to one million one
hundred thousand men in Israel, capable of bearing arms, inclusive of
the three hundred thousand military (), which, being already enlisted in the royal service, were
not reckoned ([2 Samuel 24:9](../../../kjv/2-samuel/24/9)), and to
four hundred seventy thousand men in Judah, omitting thirty thousand
which formed an army of observation stationed on the Philistine
frontier ([2 Samuel 6:1](../../../kjv/2-samuel/6/1)). So large a
population at this early period, considering the limited extent of
the country and comparing it with the earlier census ([2 Samuel 6:1](../../../kjv/2-samuel/6/1)), is a striking proof of the fulfilment of the promise
([Genesis 15:5](../../../kjv/genesis/15/5)).

**6. Levi and Benjamin counted he
not**—If this census was ordered with a view to the imposition of
taxes, this alone would account for Levi, who were not warriors (), not being numbered (see on ). The population of Benjamin had been taken (see on ), and the register preserved in the archives of that
tribe. This, however, was taken on another occasion, and by other
agency than that of Joab. The non-numbering of these two tribes might
have originated in the special and gracious providence of God, partly
because Levi was devoted to His service, and Benjamin had become the
least of all the tribes (); and partly because God foresaw that they would remain
faithful to the house of David in the division of the tribes, and
therefore He would not have them diminished [POOLE].
From the course followed in this survey (see on ), it would appear that Judah and Benjamin were the last
tribes that were to be visited; and that, after the census in Judah
had been finished, Joab, before entering on that of Benjamin, had to
return to Jerusalem, where the king, now sensible of his great error,
gave orders to stop all further proceedings in the business. Not only
the remonstrance of Joab at the first, but his slow progress in the
survey ([2 Samuel 24:8](../../../kjv/2-samuel/24/8)) showed the
strong repugnance and even horror of the old general at this
unconstitutional measure.

**9. the Lord spake unto Gad, David's
seer**—Although David was himself endowed with a prophetic gift,
yet, in matters relating to himself or his kingdom, he was in the
habit of consulting the Lord through the medium of the priests; and
when he failed to do so, a prophet was sent on extraordinary
occasions to admonish or chastise him. Gad, a private friend, was
occasionally employed as the bearer of these prophetic messages.

**11, 12. Choose thee,** &c.—To
the *three* evils these correspond in beautiful agreement: *three*
years, *three* months, *three* days [BERTHEAU].
(See on ).

**13. let me fall now into the hand of
the Lord . . . let me not fall into the hand of man**—Experience
had taught him that human passion and vengeance had no bounds,
whereas our wise and gracious Father in heaven knows the kind, and
regulates the extent, of chastisement which every one needs.

**14, 15. So the Lord . . . sent an
angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it**—The infliction only of the
pestilence is here noticed, without any account of its duration or
its ravages, while a minute description is given of the visible
appearance and menacing attitude of the destroying angel.

**15. stood by the threshing-floor of
Ornan the Jebusite**—Ornan was probably his Hebrew or Jewish,
Araunah his Jebusite or Canaanitish, name. Whether he was the old
king of Jebus, as that title is given to him (), or not, he had been converted to the worship of the true
God, and was possessed both of property and influence.

**16. David and the elders . . .
clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces**—They appeared in
the garb and assumed the attitude of humble penitents, confessing
their sins, and deprecating the wrath of God.
. HE BUILDS
AN ALTAR.

**18. the angel of the Lord commanded
Gad to say**—The order about the erection of an altar, as well as
the indication of its site, is described () as brought directly by Gad. Here we are informed of the
quarter whence the prophet got his commission. It is only in the
later stages of Israel's history that we find angels employed in
communicating the divine will to the prophets.

**20, 21. Ornan was threshing wheat**—If
the census was entered upon in autumn, the beginning of the civil
year, the nine and a half months it occupied would end at wheat
harvest. The common way of threshing corn is by spreading it out on a
high level area, and driving backwards and forwards upon it two oxen
harnessed to a clumsy sledge with three rollers and some sharp
spikes. The driver sits on his knees on the box, while another person
is employed in drawing back the straw and separating it from the
grain underneath. By this operation the chaff is very much chopped,
and the grain threshed out.

**23. I give thee . . . the threshing
instruments for wood**—that is, to burn the sacrifice of the
oxen. Very little real import—the *haste* and the *value*
of the present offered—can be understood in this country. The
offering was made for *instant* use. Ornan, hereby hoping to
terminate the pestilence without a moment's delay, "gave all,"
oxen, the large threshing machine, and the wheat.

**25. David gave . . . for the place
six hundred shekels of gold**—At first he bought only the cattle
and the threshing instruments, for which he paid fifty shekels of
silver ([2 Samuel 24:24](../../../kjv/2-samuel/24/24)); afterwards
he purchased the whole property, Mount Moriah, on which the future
temple stood. High in the center of the mountain platform rises a
remarkable rock, now covered by the dome of "the Sakrah."
It is irregular in its form, and measures about sixty feet in one
direction and fifty feet in the other. It is the natural surface of
Mount Moriah and is thought by many to be the rock of the
threshing-floor of Araunah, selected by David, and continued by
Solomon and Zerubbabel as "the unhewn stone" on which to
build the altar [BARTLETT, *Walks about Jerusalem;* STANLEY].

**26. David built there an altar**—He
went in procession with his leading men from the royal palace, down
Mount Zion, and through the intervening city. Although he had plenty
of space on his own property, he was commanded, under peremptory
*direction,* to go a considerable distance from his home, up
Mount Moriah, to erect an altar on premises which he had to buy. It
was on or close to the spot where Abraham had offered up Isaac.
**answered him by fire from
heaven**—(See [Leviticus 9:24](../../../kjv/leviticus/9/24);
[1 Kings 18:21-23](../../../kjv/1-kings/18/21-23); [2 Kings 1:12](../../../kjv/2-kings/1/12);
[2 Chronicles 7:1](../../../kjv/2-chronicles/7/1)).

**28. when David saw that the Lord had
answered him . . ., he sacrificed there**—or, "he continued
to sacrifice there." Perceiving his sacrifice was acceptable, he
proceeded to make additional offerings there, and seek favor by
prayer and expiatory rites; for the dread of the menacing angel
destroying Jerusalem while he was absent in the center of worship at
Gibeon, especially reverence for the Divine Being, led him to
continue his adorations in that place which God () had hallowed by the tokens of His presence and gracious
acceptance.

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