1 Chronicles 21:1 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

1 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 21 David numbereth the people, 1 Chronicles 20:1-6. He repenteth of three judgments propounded, he chooseth the pestilence; and why, 1 Chronicles 21:7-13. David, by Gad's direction, buildeth an altar, and sacrificeth: the plague is stayed, 1 Chronicles 21:14-30. Satan stood up, Heb. stood, to wit, before the Lord and his tribunal to accuse David and Israel, and to beg God's permission to tempt David to number the people. Standing is the accuser's posture before men's tribunals; and consequently the Holy Scripture (which useth to speak of God, and of the things of God, after the manner of men, to bring them down to our capacities) elsewhere represents Satan in this posture, as 1 Kings 22:21 Malachi 3:1. And so this agrees with 2 Samuel 24:1, where the Lord is said to move David, i.e. to give Satan commission or permission to move him; for otherwise God tempteth no man, James 1:13. But of this, and of this whole chapter, and of the variations and seeming contradictions between this narrative and that in Samuel, see my notes on 2Sa 24.