*H And Satan rose up against Israel: and moved David to number Israel.
Ver. 1. Satan. This shews that the Lord only (H.) permitted David's sin, (2 K. xxiv. W.) and in this sense only he is said to have instigated him; (D.) though we read this was done by the fury of the Lord, or by an evil spirit. H.
* Footnote * 2_Kings 24 : 1
And the anger of the Lord was again kindled against Israel, and stirred up David among them, saying: Go, number Israel and Juda.*H And Joab answered: The Lord make his people a hundred times more than they are: but, my lord the king, are they not all thy servants: why doth my lord seek this thing, which may be imputed as a sin to Israel?
Ver. 3. Israel, who will be severely punished. C. — Sin is often used in this sense. Vatable.
*H And he gave David the number of them, whom he had surveyed: and all the number of Israel was found to be eleven hundred thousand men that drew the sword: and of Juda four hundred and seventy thousand fighting men.
Ver. 5. The number, &c. The difference of the numbers here and 2 K. xxiv. 9. is to be accounted for, by supposing the greater number to be that which was really found, and the lesser to be that which Joab gave in; (Ch.) or the transcribers of this place have been inaccurate. C.
*H But Levi and Benjamin he did not number: for Joab unwillingly executed the king's orders.
Ver. 6. Number. These might therefore escape the pestilence. D. — For. Heb. "because the king's word was abominable to Joab." We read that Benjamin was numbered unto David. C. vii. 5. 11. But that might be on another occasion; or the register continued in the archives, and was not brought to the king. See C. xxvii. 24. C.
*H And David said to God: I have sinned exceedingly in doing this: I beseech thee take away the iniquity of thy servant, for I have done foolishly.
Ver. 8. Iniquity. David was guilty, though he retained both faith and hope. W.
*H And the Lord spoke to Gad the seer of David, saying:
Ver. 9. Seer, or prophet, whom David kept at court and consulted. He was endued himself with the prophetic spirit.
*H Go, and speak to David, and tell him: Thus saith the Lord: I give thee the choice of three things: choose one which thou wilt, and I will do it to thee.
Ver. 10. Three; a word omitted in Heb. but supplied by the Prot. H. — "I will bring three things upon thee." Sept.
*H Either three years famine: or three months to flee from thy enemies, and not to be able to escape their sword: or three days to have the sword of the Lord, and pestilence in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying in all the coasts of Israel: now therefore see what I shall answer him who sent me.
Ver. 12. Three years' famine; which joined with the three foregoing years of famine, mentioned 2 K. xxi. and the seventh year of the land's resting, would make up the seven years proposed by the prophet. 2 K. xxiv. 13. Ch. — Perhaps it would be as well to acknowledge a mistake, (2 K. H.) on account of the similitude of the Hebrew words signifying three and seven: (T.) unless the prophet reduced the time from seven to three years; as in Ezechiel (iv. 15.) God mitigates the severity of his first threat. Sanctius.
*H And David said to Gad: I am on every side in a great strait: but it is better for me to fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercies are many, than into the hands of men.
Ver. 13. Men. Susanna spoke on a different supposition, (Dan. xiii. 23. Eccli. ii. 22.) of eternal punishment, in consequence of sin. David prefers to be punished by the hand of a tender father, rather than by that of an enemy; (T. E.) and he does not wish to screen himself from suffering in this world, but offers himself to share in the chastisement of his subjects. H.
*H And he sent an angel to Jerusalem, to strike it: and as he was striking it, the Lord beheld, and took pity for the greatness of the evil: and said to the angel that destroyed: It is enough, now stop thy hand. And the angel of the Lord stood by the thrashingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
Ver. 15. Took. Heb. "repented of evil," taking pity of unhappy victims. — Ornan, or Areuna. Ch. — He had been king of the Jebusites before David took Jerusalem. Mariana. T.
*H And the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to tell David, to go up, and build an altar to the Lord God in the thrashingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
Ver. 18. Altar. Hence it appears that holy men erected altars by God's command. D.
*H Now when Ornan looked up, and saw the angel, he and his four sons hid themselves: for at that time he was thrashing wheat in the floor.
Ver. 20. Now. Heb. "and Ornan turned back." — Angel. Sept. (Vat.) "the king and his four sons with him, along with Achabin." Other editions have, "and his four sons hidden with him." Arab. "and the king, being come near to Aran, he saw David and his," &c. Syr. reads in like manner; but says nothing of the children either of David or of Ornan. We do not read that Ornan saw the angel, 2 K. but this circumstance may be here supplied. It is evident the Sept. have read melec, "king," instead of malac, "angel." C. — Eupolemus says the angel Dianathan shewed David were to build the temple. Eus. Præp. ix. 30.
*H And David said to him: Give me this place of thy thrashingfloor, that I may build therein an altar to the Lord: but thou shalt take of me as much money as it is worth, that the plague may cease from the people.
Ver. 22. Worth. Heb. "give it me for the full price," or "worth." Sept. "the money was weighed."
*H So David gave to Ornan for the place, six hundred sicles of gold of just weight.
Ver. 25. Six hundred sicles, &c. This was the price of the whole place on which the temple was afterwards built: but the price of the oxen was fifty sicles of silver. 2 K. xxiv. 24. Ch. — Or the fifty sicles were given for the threshing-floor alone. C. D.
*H And he built there an altar to the Lord: and he offered holocausts, and peace offerings, and he called upon the Lord, and he heard him by sending fire from heaven upon the altar of the holocaust.
Ver. 26. Fire, to testify his approbation. (W. T.) See Gen. iv. 4. 2 Par. vii. 1. C. — This altar represented the cross, on which the Victim of our reconciliation was offered. D.
* Footnote * 2_Paralipomenon 3 : 1
And Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, in mount Moria, which had been shewn to David his father, in the place which David had prepared in the thrashingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.* Footnote * Exodus 36 : 2
And when Moses had called them, and every skilful man, to whom the Lord had given wisdom, and such as of their own accord had offered themselves to the making of the work,*H And David could not go to the altar there to pray to God: for he was seized with an exceeding great fear, seeing the sword of the angel of the Lord.
Ver. 30. God. He performed what God had commanded. But he would have offered other voluntary victims at Gabaon, if he had been able. C. — The distance shewed the propriety of building the temple at Jerusalem, (D.) which was nearly in the centre of the country. H.