The First Book of the Chronicles
1 Chronicles 21
Chapter XXI · Vol. II, pp. 833–834
1 David, tempted by Satan, forceth Joab to number the people. 5 The number of the people being brought, David repenteth of it. 9 David having three plagues propounded by Gad, chooseth the three days' pestilence. 14 After the death of seventy thousand, David by repentance preventeth the destruction of Jerusalem. 18 David, by Gad's direction, purchaseth Ornan's thrashing-floor: where, having built an altar, God giveth a sign of his favour by fire, and stayeth the plague. 28 David sacrificeth there, being restrained from Gibeon by fear of the angel.
2 And David said to Joab, and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from bBeer-sheba even to Dan;1 and cbring the number of them to me, that I may know it.
3 And Joab answered, dThe 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?
4 Neverthelesse the king's word 2prevailed against Joab: wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.
2 That is, in the council, where probably others thought with Joab, but wanted either the courage or honesty to declare it. It is the misfortune of kings and of all great men, to be surrounded either by flatterers who lead them astray, or timid time-servers who dare not tell them the truth. A bold and honest counsellor, and a friend who will tenderly but truly reveal to a man his faults, and urge him to his duty, are truly gifts from the Lord. Pr.1.5. Ps.16.7. Pr.8.14; 12.15; 19.20; 27.9.—C.
5 And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they of Israel fwere a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword; and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.
f Here the 288,000 trained bands, mentioned ch.27.2-15, are added to the Israelites reckoned, 2 Sa.24.9. [In 2 Sa. 24. 9 it is only 800,000; but if we allow 1000 officers to each of the twelve legions of 24,000 each, then the two accounts are found exactly to correspond.—I.]
6 But gLevi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king's word was abominable to Joab.
g ch.27.23,24.
8 And David said unto God, iI have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing: but now, I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.
9 And the LORD spake unto Gad, David's seer,k saying,
A.M. 2987. B.C. 1017.
k 1 Sa.9.9. 2 Sa.24.11.
10 Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the LORD, I offer3 thee three things: choose lthee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.
11 So Gad mcame to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Choose thee4
m Eze.2.7; 3.17. Je.1.7,17. 1 Co.4.1,2. Ac.20.27.
4 Heb. take to thee.
12 Eithern three years' famine;5 or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the LORD, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me.
n 2 Sa.24.13. La.4.9. Re.3.10.
5 As in 2 Sa. 24. 12, seven years' famine are offered, but in the text three, the 'mistake of a transcriber,' or the confounding of two Hebrew numerals, is as usual assumed by expositors as the only reconciliation. But why this unauthorized violence? May not the prophet have been instructed first to offer seven years? And may he not himself have entreated the Lord, as Abraham did in the case of Sodom (Ge. 18. 23), to lower the number to three?—C.
13 And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very ogreat are his mercies: but let pme not fall into the hand of man.
o Or, many, Ps.130.7. La.3.32,33. Hab.3.2.
14 So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel qseventy thousand men.
q 2 Sa.24.15. Nu.16.47,49; 25.9. 1 Sa.6.19. Ps.91.6,7.
15 And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented6 himr of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough; stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the thrashing-floor of Ornan sthe Jebusite.7
6 See note on Ex.32.14.—C.
r Ex.32.14. Ju.2.18. Ps.78.38; 106.45,46; 94.14; 90.13; 79.8-11. Ho.11.8. La.3.32.
s Or, Araunah, 2 Sa.24.18.
7 Ornan's thrashing-floor was on the narrow summit of Mount Moriah. When David first saw the angel of the Lord he was probably at the door of his palace on Mount Zion. Moriah was due east, and to reach it he had to descend into the deep bed of the Tyropoeon valley which divided the two hills, and then climb the steep side of Moriah. The threatening aspect of the angel, stretching out his flaming sword toward Jerusalem, would be seen to great advantage from David's palace on the opposite brow of Zion.—P.
16 And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the tangel of the LORD stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem:8 then David and the elders of Israel, uwho were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.
8 The existence of an invisible world, whose inhabitants may become visible, is everywhere implied or declared in the Scriptures. Still it is revealed as an instructive fact, never to gratify an idle curiosity. Here the appearance of the angel is to convince, not David, but the court and the city, that the plague was a direct infliction of Providence, and thereby to warn them to 'flee from the wrath to come.'—C.
u Jonah 3.5. Ps.35.13,14. Nu.14.5.
17 And David said unto God, xIs it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but as for ythese sheep, what have they done? Let thine hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be on me, and on my father's house; but not on thy people, that they should be plagued.
x 2 Sa.24.17. Ps.51.4; 25.11. ver.8. Eze.16.63.
y 1 Ki.22.17. Ps.44.11. Je.12.3.
18 Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and set up an altar unto the LORD zin the thrashing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
z 2 Sa.24.18. 2 Ch.3.1. Ge.22.2,14.
20 And Ornan9 turned back, and saw the angel;1 and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was thrashing wheat.
9 Or, when Ornan turned back and saw the angel, then he and his four sons with him hid themselves.
1 Rather, he turned and saw the king (comp. 2 Sa.24.20), as the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic translate the passage. They first saw the king with a large retinue at a distance, and not knowing what it might portend, they hid themselves. When he came near in peace, they came forth to greet him.—C.
21 And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the thrashing-floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.
22 Then David said to Ornan, bGrant me the place of this thrashing-floor, that I may build an altar therein unto the LORD: thou shalt grant it me for the full price; that cthe plague may be stayed from the people.
23 And Ornan said unto David, dTake it to thee, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes: lo, I give thee the oxen also for burnt-offerings, and the thrashing-instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meat-offering; I give it all.
d 2 Sa.24.22. Ge.23.21. 1 Ki.19.21.
24 And king David said to Ornan, eNay; but I will verily buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is thine for the LORD, nor offer burnt-offerings without cost.2
2 It is a command from Heaven—'Honour the Lord with thy substance.' He who has a religion that costs him nothing, has a religion that is worth nothing; nor will any man esteem the ordinances of God if these ordinances cost him nothing. Had Araunah's noble offer been accepted, it would have been Araunah's sacrifice, not David's; nor would it have answered the end of turning away the displeasure of the Most High. It was David that sinned, not Araunah, therefore David must offer the sacrifice.—I.
25 So fDavid gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold[≈ 6.8 kg · 15 lb · gold worth ≈ US$890,000] by weight.3
f 2 Sa.24.24. This was far above the price of the spot, or perhaps was given for the whole ground about the spot of the altar. It is £1095 sterling.
3 This was not, as the venerable Brown, in the preceding note, supposes, 'far above the price.' Fifty shekels (2 Sa. 24. 24) were given for the thrashing-floor and oxen, 600 shekels of gold for the whole place or property—two distinct bargains.—C.
26 And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, and called upon the LORD; and ghe answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt-offering.
g Le.9.24. 2 Ch.7.1. 1 Ki.18.38.
27 And the LORD commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof.
28 At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him in the thrashing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed hthere.
29 For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt-offering, were at that season in the high place at iGibeon.
30 But David could not go before it to inquire of God: for he was kafraid,4 because of the sword of the angel of the LORD.5
k Ps.119.120. Eze.9.6. He.12.28,29.
4 Impelled by a faith that feared (Ps. 111.10. He. 5. 7) while it trusted, he dared not defer the sacrifice, lest the sword of the angel might be commissioned to smite.—C.
5 Gibeon was half a day's journey distant, and David naturally feared to go so far away lest in his absence the destroying angel would execute his fatal commission on the city. Besides, David rightly considered that the spot over which the angel stood was holy.—P.
Notes
Reflections.—While the saints remain on earth, Satan never lets them alone, nor despairs of success in his temptations. And to nothing does he more tempt men than to pride; though there is nothing that God more hates, or more severely punishes. Yea, he will use the strangest methods to do the people of God an injury. Sometimes the wicked are wiser in some things of God than the saints. And always, when the heart is averse, the work goes on heavily, and is left imperfect. It is a great mercy to be quickly brought to a sense of our sins. But, even when the Lord enables to repent, he does not always turn away the external punishment which his saints must suffer in their flesh, even when their spirit is saved. Our folly and rashness often reduce us to the most fearful straits and perplexities, when we have none but ourselves to blame. It is an evil and bitter thing to depart from the living God. Spreading is the influence of sin: and if God's mercy were not infinite, we should be utterly consumed. Under the judgments which we have deserved, it is therefore our only resource to flee to that God whom we have offended. He can not only stop short the execution of his judgment, but bring good out of evil, and make even sin itself an occasion of planting his church, and of a more vigorous preparation for his service. How pleasant is it all along to observe the providence of God marking his intended favours to the accursed sinners of the Gentiles! When his temple is to be built, the gold, silver, and brass must be procured from Gentiles: the place of it must be purchased from a Gentile: and almost all the workmen must be Gentiles, Tyrians, Canaanites, &c. And now to us Gentiles are preached, are given, the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Measures in square brackets are modern equivalents added for this edition. They are not in the King James text or in Brown’s notes. They use common scholarly estimates: a cubit is about 45.7 cm (18 in), a shekel about 11.4 g (0.4 oz), an ephah about 22 litres. Money values give the worth of the silver or gold at spot prices on 28 October 2026, not what the sum would buy in the ancient world.