2 Samuel 24
This is a rather odd statement to start off the chapter "Again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel and he incited David against them saying "Go and take a census of Israel and Judah""
What is all that about? I don't get it.
I also don't understand the timing of this chapter, David had his last words in Chapter 23, now he is taking a census?
From our time spent in the books of the law, we saw that if there was a census every person counted had to pay a ransom, but there had been censuses before this occasion, so I don't really know what the big deal is - unless people were leaving the ransom to God out?
David gave the task of the census to Joab and the army commanders to go and find out how many conscripts he could get into the army.
Joab tried to persuade the king against the plan, he saw trouble ahead evidently, but David was king and overruled him.
The census took nearly 10 months and at the end they had counted 1.3 million men who were of military age (800,000 in Israel and 500,000 in Judah) or about double the men from the censuses in the time of Moses and Joshua.
David had a massive attack of conscience after this and begged God to forgive him. Despite the fact that at the start of the chapter God incited him to do it because he was angry.
God tells David through his seer, Gad, that he can choose the punishment, either 3 years of famine, or 3 months of defeat at the hands of the enemy, or 3 days of plague.
David chose the plague as it was the one God was most in control of, and about 70000 people died.
The plague was about to hit Jerusalem when God relented and stopped his angel at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
God told David to build an alter on the threshing floor, so David outright bought the threshing floor, oxen and all the other equipment saying when Araunah offered him the land "I will not sacrifice to God something that cost me nothing".
This bought an end to the plague - and also to the books of Samuel.
It seems that 2 Samuel is probably the oddest title for a book we have yet seen, Samuel does not even put in an appearance - he has been dead the whole time!
The nation of Israel has somehow changed and come together united behind a king (mostly) and the judges that ruled Israel in a kind of as required leader are now history.
This is a rather odd statement to start off the chapter "Again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel and he incited David against them saying "Go and take a census of Israel and Judah""
What is all that about? I don't get it.
I also don't understand the timing of this chapter, David had his last words in Chapter 23, now he is taking a census?
From our time spent in the books of the law, we saw that if there was a census every person counted had to pay a ransom, but there had been censuses before this occasion, so I don't really know what the big deal is - unless people were leaving the ransom to God out?
David gave the task of the census to Joab and the army commanders to go and find out how many conscripts he could get into the army.
Joab tried to persuade the king against the plan, he saw trouble ahead evidently, but David was king and overruled him.
The census took nearly 10 months and at the end they had counted 1.3 million men who were of military age (800,000 in Israel and 500,000 in Judah) or about double the men from the censuses in the time of Moses and Joshua.
David had a massive attack of conscience after this and begged God to forgive him. Despite the fact that at the start of the chapter God incited him to do it because he was angry.
God tells David through his seer, Gad, that he can choose the punishment, either 3 years of famine, or 3 months of defeat at the hands of the enemy, or 3 days of plague.
David chose the plague as it was the one God was most in control of, and about 70000 people died.
The plague was about to hit Jerusalem when God relented and stopped his angel at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
God told David to build an alter on the threshing floor, so David outright bought the threshing floor, oxen and all the other equipment saying when Araunah offered him the land "I will not sacrifice to God something that cost me nothing".
This bought an end to the plague - and also to the books of Samuel.
It seems that 2 Samuel is probably the oddest title for a book we have yet seen, Samuel does not even put in an appearance - he has been dead the whole time!
The nation of Israel has somehow changed and come together united behind a king (mostly) and the judges that ruled Israel in a kind of as required leader are now history.
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