Satan] In 2 Samuel 24:1 the Lord is said to have been angry with Israel, and to have moved David to number the people; for the Hebrews in early times did not hesitate to describe God as prompting to evil as well as to good, men being punished for one sin by being led to commit another. But in later ages the idea that God tempted men to wrong was felt to conflict with His absolute holiness; and this created the belief that temptation was the work of a spirit of malevolent character, who, though subordinate to, and attendant upon, God, was yet an adversary (lit. the 'Satan') of men, and sought to bring about their ruin (see on 1 Kings 22:21-22; Job 1:6.; Zechariah 3:1). In Job and Zechariah the name is still only a title; but in Chronicles it has become a proper name (being used without the article).
5. A thousand thousand, etc.] 2 Samuel 24:9 represents Israel as 800,000 and Judah 500,000. According to 1 Chronicles 27:24 the numbers were not entered in the official records, and they have probably undergone corruption in the course of transmission.