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From: 2 Samuel 24:2, 9-17

The Census

[2] So the king (David) said to Joab and the commanders of the army, who were
with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beer-sheba, and num-
ber the people, that I may know the number of the people.” [9] And Joab gave the
sum of the numbering of the people to the king: in Israel there were eight hundred
thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hun-
dred thousand.

[10] But David’s heart smote him after he had numbered the people. And David
said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O LORD,
I pray thee, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.”

Pestilence. God’s Forgiveness

[11] And when David arose in the morning, the word of the LORD came to the pro-
phet Gad, David’s seer, saying, [12] “Go and say to David, ‘Thus says the LORD,
Three things I offer you; choose one of them, that I may do it to you. [13] So Gad
came to David and told him, and said to him, “Shall three years of famine come
to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pur-
sue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? Now consider,
and decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me.” [14] Then David said
to Gad, “I am in great distress; let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for his mer-
cy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.”

[15] So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the appoin-
ted time; and there died of the people from Dan to Beer-sheba seventy thousand
men. [16] And when the angel stretched forth his hand toward Jerusalem to de-
stroy it, the LORD repented of the evil, and said to the angel who was working
destruction among the people, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” And the angel
of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. [17] Then David
spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel who was smiting the people, and said,
“Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they
done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, be against me and against my father’s house.”

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Commentary:

24:1-25. The account of the census contains some elements similar to those
in the account of the deaths of the house of Saul (cf. 21:1-14): there were three
years of famine; the earlier tragedy was caused by a sin of Saul, and we have a
sin of David; previously the Lord was appeased once David piously buried Saul
and his family, that is, when a page in the history of Israel was closed (cf. 21:
14); now a similar effect is attributed to the sacrifices offered by David on the
new altar of Jerusalem, that is, when a new and promising stage begins for the
chosen people (v. 25).

The account starts in a surprising way because it anticipates the outcome, that
is, divine anger and punishment, and it also gives the circumstances of the trans-
gression, by pointing out that it was the Lord who incited David to commit it (v.1).
In the mentality of that time all human events were attributed to God, even natu-
ral disasters, and temptation to sin; such anthropomorphisms serve to show the
gravity of the transgression. The census was so enormous a sin that the idea be-
hind it is imputed to a supernatural being (1 Chronicles 21:1 calls him “Satan”)
and its consequences are such that only God can prevent or alleviate them.

To know the number of members that make up the people (v. 2) was equivalent
to lording it over them and taking advantage of them, sometimes by way of taxes,
sometimes by conscripting them into the army or making them slaves to do hard
labor for the king. The people of Israel belong only to the Lord, and are subject on-
ly to him. When the Law permitted a census, each of those counted had to pay a
ransom similar to what was paid when a first-born was redeemed (cf. the note on
Ex 30:11-16), indicating that in some way they were passing from the Lord’s do-
main into that of the king.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.