Bible Synapse
Was taking a census wrong in itself, when Moses and Solomon also numbered the people?
Hard question · Israel’s history: Joshua to Esther · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate
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After Joab’s count, David’s heart smote him: “I have sinned greatly in that I have done”.
And David’s heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the Lord, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.
Satan provoked David to number Israel; Joab protested that it would bring guilt on Israel; God was displeased and struck Israel.
And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel. And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from Beer–sheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it. And Joab answered, The Lord make his people an hundred times so many more as they be: but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? why then doth my lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel? Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem. And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword. But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king’s word was abominable to Joab. …
Solomon numbered the foreigners in Israel “after the numbering wherewith David his father had numbered them”: 153,600 men.
And Solomon numbered all the strangers that were in the land of Israel, after the numbering wherewith David his father had numbered them; and they were found an hundred and fifty thousand and three thousand and six hundred.
God commands Moses and Aaron to number every man of Israel from twenty years old who could go to war.
Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls; From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies.
When Israel is numbered, each man is to give a ransom for his soul to the Lord, “that there be no plague among them”.
When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them.
The objection
The Bible treats David’s census as a grave sin, punished by a plague that killed seventy thousand men (2 Samuel 24:15). Yet God himself told Moses to number Israel, and Chronicles reports without a word of blame that Solomon took a census too. If counting the people is wrong, why is it commanded elsewhere; and if it is not wrong, why was David punished?
The answer
The Bible never treats counting people as wrong in itself. God commanded Moses to number the fighting men twice (Numbers 1:2–3; 26:2), and the law set out how it was to be done, with a ransom of half a shekel for every man counted, “that there be no plague among them” (Exodus 30:12–13). Saul counted his troops before battle (1 Samuel 11:8; 15:4), and so did David himself when Absalom rebelled (2 Samuel 18:1), with no word of blame.
What was wrong in 2 Samuel 24 was David’s purpose. No war was pending and God had given no command. Joab saw at once that the king wanted the count for his own satisfaction: “why doth my lord the king delight in this thing?” (2 Samuel 24:3). He warned that it would bring guilt on Israel (1 Chronicles 21:3). Most commentators, from Gill to Keil and Delitzsch, find the sin in self-exaltation: David was measuring the strength of his kingdom by the number of its soldiers, instead of trusting the God who had promised to make Israel as many as the stars (1 Chronicles 27:23). David confessed that he had sinned, and his fault was his motive, not the arithmetic.
Solomon’s census was of a different kind. He counted the foreigners living in Israel to organise the labour for the temple (2 Chronicles 2:17–18). Keil and Delitzsch and Ellicott take the earlier count it followed to be the one David made of these foreigners for the same work (1 Chronicles 22:2). The same writer who tells of David’s sinful census in 1 Chronicles 21 reports Solomon’s without blame, so he plainly did not think every census sinful.
Other answers Christians give
The ransom was not paid
Gill and others suggest that David also neglected the half-shekel ransom of Exodus 30:12, which the law required ‘that there be no plague’ when the people were counted. The plague that followed would then fit the law’s own warning. The text does not say so, so this remains a suggestion.
Plans for conquest or taxes
Adam Clarke thought that David was planning wars of conquest and wanted to know whether he had men enough; others have thought of a new tax or levy. Keil and Delitzsch rejected both guesses as going beyond the text, while agreeing that the count served David’s pride in his military strength.
Still open
Scripture does not spell out exactly what made this census sinful, and Christian commentators weigh pride, distrust of God and the neglected ransom differently. They agree that the fault lay in the king’s motive and manner, not in counting as such.
From the classic commentators
The true kernel of David's sin was to be found, no doubt, in self-exaltation, inasmuch as he sought for the strength and glory of his kingdom in the number of the people and their readiness for war.Keil & Delitzsch, Commentary on 2 Samuel 24
Sources
- Keil & Delitzsch, Commentary on 2 Samuel 24, at Bible Hub
- John Gill, Exposition of the Bible: 2 Samuel 24 (1746–1763), at Bible Hub
- Keil & Delitzsch, Commentary on 2 Chronicles 2, at Bible Hub
- Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers: 2 Chronicles 2, at Bible Hub