Chapter Twenty-One

1–6. Census of the Israelites. 7–17. The plague. 18–30. David’s purchase of Ornan’s threshing floor and his sacrifice.

1 Chronicles 21:1. And Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to number the Israelites. In (2 Sam 24:1) the impulse to number Israel is attributed to God Himself; here to Satan. As a power dependent on God, he acts by His permission and is noted by the author of Chronicles as the chief cause of the deed that brought harm to Israel. According to the book of Kings the census of the people is one of the events at the end of David’s reign; according to the book of Chronicles it followed David’s victorious wars, which increased the glory of his kingdom and fostered in the king an inexcusable feeling of pride and self-exaltation in a theocracy. The author follows not a chronological order of events, but an ideological one.

1 Chronicles 21:3. And Joab said: “May the Lord multiply his people a hundredfold as they are. Are they not all, my lord the king, the servants of my lord? Why does my lord require this? Will it not bring guilt upon Israel? Joab’s response in Chronicles presents certain features compared to the book of Kings. Namely, David’s commander adduces two considerations, not noted in the latter, against the census. It is unnecessary, first, because all the subjects are loyal to the king. Why then should he know their number? Second, a census of the people, as the fruit of pride, may bring calamity upon Israel.

1 Chronicles 21:4. But the king’s word prevailed over Joab; and Joab went out and traversed all Israel, and came to Jerusalem. In the book of Chronicles the description of the procedure of the census is omitted. According to the indication of 2 Kings (2 Sam 24:5-7), it began on the east side of the Jordan, continued in the region of the northern tribes and ended in the south.

1 Chronicles 21:5. And Joab gave David the count of the census of the people, and there were of all Israel one million one hundred thousand men drawing the sword, and of Judah four hundred and seventy thousand drawing the sword. The number of Judah is shown as approximately the same as in 2 Kings (500,000, according to 2 Sam 24:9), but of Israelites much greater: (1,100,000) instead of (800,000). It is difficult to say what accounts for such a difference.

1 Chronicles 21:6. But he did not count Levi and Benjamin among them, because the king’s word was distasteful to Joab. As can be seen from the order of conducting the census (2 Sam 24:5-7), the tribe of Benjamin was to be counted last. But Joab’s awareness of the criminal nature of the deed was so strong (“the king’s word was distasteful to him”) that he could not complete the census (cf. 1 Chr 27:24). The Levites, dwelling in the portions of all the tribes, could be counted together with the inhabitants of these latter. And if Joab does not do this, it is in fulfillment of the prescription of the law of Moses, which exempted them from a census of a political nature (Num 1:47-49).

1 Chronicles 21:12. Either three years of famine, or three months during which you shall flee before your enemies and the sword of your enemies shall reach you, or else three days of the sword of the Lord, plague on the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel. Now decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me with this word. The addition compared to 2 Kings: “the sword of the Lord” and “the angel of the Lord” was introduced in the text in accordance with the subsequent narrative (1 Chr 21:14-16).

1 Chronicles 21:16. And David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between the earth and the heavens, with a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem; and David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. The detail mentioned in this verse is not found in 2 Kings. David’s and his elders’ feelings of repentance are quite understandable in view of their previously shown remorse (1 Chr 21:8).

1 Chronicles 21:20. And Ornan turned around and saw the angel, and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat. The second book of Kings makes no mention either of Ornan’s fear and his sons, nor of them hiding themselves. But this fact, noted in Chronicles, is presupposed also by the book of Kings, namely by its remark: “Ornan went out” (2 Sam 24:20), that is, from the threshing floor.

1 Chronicles 21:22. And David said to Ornan: “Give me the place of the threshing floor, that I may build an altar to the Lord. Give it to me at the full price, that the plague may be stopped among the people. The particulars of David’s conversation with Ornan (2 Sam 24:20-21) do not alter the essence of the matter.

1 Chronicles 21:25. And David gave Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold. According to the statement (2 Sam 24:24), the threshing floor was bought for 50 shekels, which in our money equals approximately 25 rubles. But it seems more probable to accept the reading of Chronicles: 600 shekels. From the history of Abraham it appears that in antiquity a cave was valued at 400 shekels.

1 Chronicles 21:26. And David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings; and he called upon the Lord, and he answered him by sending fire upon the altar of burnt offering. The sending of fire upon David’s sacrifice is a sign of its acceptableness to God (1 Kgs 18:37-38).

1 Chronicles 21:28. At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he offered a sacrifice there. If the first sacrifice served as an expression of the feeling of repentance, then the second was one of gratitude for the cessation of the calamity.

1 Chronicles 21:29. But the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time at the high place at Gibeon. 1 Chronicles 21:30. And David could not go before it to inquire of God, because he was terrified by the sword of the angel of the Lord. According to the law of Moses (Deut 12:5) sacrifice should be offered only at the place which the Lord Himself designates. A sacrifice not at Gibeon, where the tabernacle of Moses and the altar were, but at Ornan’s threshing floor, violated this ordinance. But the justification for David was in this case the fact that he was “terrified by the sword of the angel,” that is, the appearance of the angel called forth in him a feeling of reverential awe before the holiness of the place, and therefore it was deemed entirely appropriate for sacrifice.