1 Chronicles 21:1-30 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

1 Chronicles 21:1 to 1 Chronicles 22:1 The Numbering of the Hosts; the Punishment (see notes on 2 Samuel 24:1-25). There are many variations from the corresponding passage in 2 S., and it is uncertain whether the Chronicler used any other source or not.

1 Chronicles 21:1. And Satan stood up: in 2 Samuel 24:1 the temptation comes from Yahweh; the Chronicler altered this as unfitting in view of the developed doctrine of God which had supervened. In the earlier literature the term Satan means adversary (Numbers 22:22; Numbers 22:32); its use here as a proper name is a development due to the influence of Persian demonology on Jewish belief; cf. Job 1:6 *, Job 2:2; Zechariah 3:1 f.

1 Chronicles 21:6. Probably added because, according to Numbers 1:49, the Levites might not be numbered for military purposes; he mentions Benjamin as not being counted because of Jerusalem, the Holy City, lying on his borders.

1 Chronicles 21:9. God: cf. 1 Chronicles 29:29; 2 Chronicles 29:25.

1 Chronicles 21:15. the threshing-floor of Ornan: this was on the top of Mount Zion where the Temple was built (cf. 1 Chronicles 22:1). In 2 Samuel 24:16 and elsewhere Ornan occurs in the form Araunah.

1 Chronicles 21:16. Not in 2 Samuel 24. between the heaven and the earth: the Hebrew way of expressing in mid-air. The description of the angel is a development due to the influence of Persian angelology; the earlier Hebrew conception pictured angels as men.

1 Chronicles 21:18. The reference to the angel here and in 1 Chronicles 21:20 is added by the Chronicler for the purpose of enhancing the supernaturalness of the episode; in 2 Samuel 24:18 ff. there is no mention of the angel.

1 Chronicles 21:23. wheat for the meal-offering: a characteristic addition by the Chronicler (cf. Leviticus 2:1 ff.).

1 Chronicles 21:25. six hundred shekels of gold: this, too, is characteristic of the Chronicler, who desires to emphasize the value of everything connected with the Temple, even down to its very site. In 2 Samuel 24:24 the price is fifty shekels of silver, including the oxen.

1 Chronicles 21:26. from heaven by fire: another addition by the Chronicler (cf. Leviticus 9:24).

1 Chronicles 21:28 to 1 Chronicles 22:1. 1 Chronicles 21:29 f. forms a parenthesis; 1 Chronicles 21:28; 1 Chronicles 22:1 describe the definite choice of Oman's threshing-floor as the site of the Temple.

1 Chronicles 21:29. the high place at Gibeon: cf. 1 Chronicles 16:39.

Related Commentaries of 1 Chronicles 21:1

1 Chronicles 21:1-30

1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.

2 And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it.

3 And Joab answered, The LORD make his people an hundred times so many more as they be: but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants? why then doth my lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel?

4 Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.

5 And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.

6 But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king's word was abominable to Joab.

7 And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel.

8 And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing: but now, I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.

9 And the LORD spake unto Gad, David's seer, saying,

10 Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the LORD, I offera thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.

11 So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Chooseb thee

12 Either three years' famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the LORD, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me.

13 And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very greatc are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man.

14 So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.

15 And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshingfloor of Ornand the Jebusite.

16 And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.

17 And David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be on me, and on my father's house; but not on thy people, that they should be plagued.

18 Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and set up an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.

19 And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spake in the name of the LORD.

20 And Ornane turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.

21 And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshingfloor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.

22 Then David said to Ornan, Grantf me the place of this threshingfloor, that I may build an altar therein unto the LORD: thou shalt grant it me for the full price: that the plague may be stayed from the people.

23 And Ornan said unto David, Take it to thee, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes: lo, I give thee the oxen also for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meat offering; I give it all.

24 And king David said to Ornan, Nay; but I will verily buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is thine for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings without cost.

25 So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight.

26 And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the LORD; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering.

27 And the LORD commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof.

28 At that time when David saw that the LORD had answered him in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.

29 For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering, were at that season in the high place at Gibeon.

30 But David could not go before it to enquire of God: for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the LORD.