1 Chronicles
Chapter 21
CONSTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE AND ORGANIZATION OF THE KINGDOM
Census of Israel
Satan wanted to bring trouble on the people of Israel. So he made David take a census of the Israelites.
David said to Joab and the senior army officers: “Go, and take a census of Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, then come back that I may know their number.”
Joab said: “May the Lord multiply the people a hundred times! My lord, king, are they not all your servants? Why do you want to do this? Will you bring guilt upon Israel?”
But the king enforced his order on Joab. Joab went away, traveling through the whole country of Israel before he returned to Jerusalem.
Joab gave David the figures for the census of the people: the whole of Israel numbered one million, one hundred thousand men capable of drawing sword, and Judah four hundred and seventy thousand capable of drawing sword.
But Joab disapproved of the king’s command, and because of this, he had not taken any census of Levi or Benjamin.
God looked displeased at what had been done, so he punished Israel.
Then David said to God: “I have sinned greatly by doing this. But now I beg you to forgive me for this fault. I have been very foolish.”
Then the Lord spoke to Gad, David’s prophet:
“Go and say to David, ‘The Lord says this: I offer you three things; choose one of them for me to do to you.”
So Gad went to David and said: “The Lord says this, ‘Take your choice:
three years of famine, three months running away from the armies of your enemies, or three days of the Lord’s sword, an epidemic in your land, with the Lord’s destroying angel bringing death throughout Israel.’ Now decide how I am to answer him who sends me.”
David said to Gad: “This is a hard choice, but let me rather fall into the power of the Lord, since his mercy is very great; and not into the power of men.”
So the Lord sent an epidemic on Israel, and seventy thousand Israelites died.
God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, but as he was about to destroy it, the Lord looked and changed his mind, and he said to the destroying angel: “Enough! Now, withdraw your hand.” The angel of the Lord was standing beside the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
David saw the angel of the Lord standing between the heavens and the earth with a naked sword in his hand, ready to destroy Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.
David prayed to God: “Was it not I who sinned by ordering this wicked census? But these, this flock, what have they done? O Lord my God, let your hand lie heavy on me and my family, but let your people escape the plague.”
The angel of the Lord then told Gad, “David must go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.”
So David obeyed the command Gad had spoken in the name of the Lord.
Ornan, as he turned, had seen the angel and had hidden with his four sons. Ornan was threshing wheat
when David came to him. When Ornan looked up and saw David coming, he left the threshing floor and did homage to David with his face to the ground.
Then David told Ornan: “Sell me your threshing floor to build an altar to the Lord. Let me have it at its full price that the plague may be turned away from the people.”
“Take it,” Ornan said to David, “and let my lord the king do as he thinks right. Look, I will give you the oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing sled for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering; I give them all.”
King David told Ornan: “No, I must buy it from you at the full price; I will not take for the Lord what is yours or offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”
So David gave Ornan six hundred gold coins for the threshing floor.
David built an altar there to the Lord and offered burnt and peace offerings. He called on the Lord, and the Lord answered him with fire from heaven on the altar for burnt offerings
and ordered the angel to put his sword away.
Then David saw that the Lord had answered him on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, so he kept offering sacrifices there.
The Holy Tent of the Lord that Moses had made in the wilderness and the altar for burnt offerings were at that time at the high place at Gibeon,
but David had not been able to go there before God to consult him, so fearful was he of the sword of the angel of the Lord.
Commentaries
Construction of the Temple and Organization of the Kingdom.
These chapters focus on the organization of worship and the priesthood. The account of the census is based on 2 Samuel 24, while chapters 22-29 are the Chronicler’s own additions. It is generally believed that chapters 22-27 were added later because they interrupt the narrative flow at 21:30, which then resumes in 28:1.
Census of Israel.
The episode of the census and the plague is crucial because it justifies the purchase of the land where the new Temple will be built (18). In both episodes, sin, punishment, and atonement lead to a positive outcome. God remains somewhat distant, although His sovereignty influences the entire process. The closest to man are the angel and the new figure, Satan. Two supernatural beings oppose each other, not in direct confrontation but concerning mankind. This Satan is the tempting spirit that infiltrates human thoughts (1 Kgs 22:22; Job 1:6; Zec 3:1-2). From this character, David’s evil desire and plan originate; the Lord is not held accountable. The other figure is an exterminating angel, similar to the one in Exodus 13:23, but he carries out God’s judgment against Israel. The king should not count his subjects to boast of his strength, as that would tempt God.