2 Samuel 24:1-9--David's Census

2 Samuel 24:1-9
English Standard Version

David's Census
24 Again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go, number Israel and Judah.” 2 So the king said to Joab, the commander of the army, who was with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and number the people, that I may know the number of the people.” 3 But Joab said to the king, “May the LORD your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see it, but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?” 4 But the king's word prevailed against Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to number the people of Israel. 5 They crossed the Jordan and began from Aroer, and from the city that is in the middle of the valley, toward Gad and on to Jazer. 6 Then they came to Gilead, and to Kadesh in the land of the Hittites; and they came to Dan, and from Dan they went around to Sidon, 7 and came to the fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites; and they went out to the Negeb of Judah at Beersheba. 8 So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. 9 And Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to the king: in Israel there were 800,000 valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were 500,000.

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Let's be clear from the beginning of this passage that "inciting" and "commanding" are two different things.  The LORD did not command or cause David to do something and then turn around and ask why David did it and punish him for it.  However, it seems that that the LORD had a plan in all this that this would be a means for all of Israel to be punished and to make David choose their punishment.  The text doesn't specify what their corporate sin was, but we probably can guess that they were boasting and trusting in their own numbers and military strength and failed to worship the LORD and praise Him for being the one that went into battle before them.

David gives the command to Joab who was commander of the army at that time and was there with David when this thought (it might be fair to call it a temptation) came upon David.  David ordered Joab to go through all the land and number all the people.  This would be contrary to the instructions that the LORD had given in the past when He commanded a census to be taken, which is why I warned us to be careful to not confuse the word "incited" with the word "commanded."  It seems that LORD was letting David be tempted to do something that was in David's heart.  David's purposes are not totally known, but since it is the end of David's reign and David is making official records, it is probably safe to assume this census was part of that effort to put some numbers to the show how numerous the nation of Israel had become within the borders of the Promised Land (from Dan to Beersheba--the northernmost point to the southernmost point and a phrase commonly used to mean "the whole Land.")

It is strange to see Joab questioning the king's order here, but even Joab knows this is not a good thing for David to do, and the LORD tries to use Joab to get David to slow down and think about what he's doing and why he's doing it, but David prevails in his command to Joab and it doesn't seem the Joab got any explanation or if he did, it is not recorded for us.

So Joab gathered the army and they started first in the Trans-Jordan area working east-to-west, then coming back to the land we typically thing of as Israel and staring in Dan in the north, they worked their way south towards the southern wilderness area of Judah all the way to Beersheba just as David had commanded.

The entire census took the army nine months and twenty days (nearly 10 months) to complete, and they found that the number of all the men of fighting age in Israel (the northern 10 tribes) was 800,000, and the Judah (the tribes of Judah and Benjamin with the same age restrictions) was 500,000.  These are different numbers than those given in 1 Chronicles 21, but that passage explains the difference saying that Joab desired to low-ball the numbers that he reported to the king.  Joab actually counted 1, 100,000 men of fighting age from the northern 10 tribes and 470,000 men of fighting age from the tribe of Judah.  Joab did not wish to count the tribe of Benjamin (the tribe that King Saul was from) and he knew better than to count the tribe of Levi in a military census.  It would seem that Joab didn't want David to be concerned about Israel rising up in rebellion against him or his son that would take the throne, so he made their military numbers look smaller and made the number of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin look a little larger than he had counted (though he didn't actually count Benjamin because he wasn't sure if they would be for or against David and his successor).  This should give us some indication as to what was on David's mind.  Although it's possible that Joab tried to figure it all out on his own, he probably got some indication or hint what was troubling David and why he wanted this census and it seems that it comes from a place of fearing another civil war.  Was Judah still capable for holding back Benjamin and the other ten tribes?  It seemed like it was Joab's goal to tell David that although Israel had more men of fighting age, it was a reasonably fair fight that Judah could win.  The odds would not have been good if he had reported the real numbers.  Even so, David realizes his sin as soon as he hears the numbers reported to him, but by then it is too late.  The LORD has already sent the prophet Gad to David, which we'll talk about next time.