2 Samuel 24

The writer doesn’t say what made God angry enough to kill 70,000 of his own chosen people. Some scholars say the writer reverse engineered that as a presumption. The writer may have believed that since God controlled everything, he must have caused the plague. The idea is that God sends bad experiences to bad people and he rewards good people. That would mean God is especially fond of the filthy rich, which is pretty much the opposite of what prophets and Jesus had to say about wealth (Matthew 6:24; Hebrews 13:5).

Many people in Old Testament times seemed to think a census was somehow wrong, or at least bad luck. That’s probably why Joab pushed back on the king about it. Perhaps they saw it as the sin of pride, in this case, a king wanting to brag about the size of his army. This version of the story says God nudged or manipulated David into ordering the census. Another version says Satan did the nudging (1 Chronicles 21:1). But, at least in 2 Samuel’s version, God is Satan. When we say “Satan,” we’re speaking Hebrew. It’s a word that means “Accuser.” God was accusing Israel of some undisclosed sin. God was the Accuser. Some scholars explain the discrepancy another way. They say God allowed Satan to manipulate David. So in a sense one writer can say God did the manipulation. Another can say Satan did it. And both could be right. Yeah, well that sounds like a bit of a stretch to others—as though some people would do anything to keep from admitting that a writer or a scribe along the way got something wrong in the Holy Bible.

Aroer was a town on the north bank of the Arnon River, east of the Dead Sea. It was in ancient Moab, a nation conquered and taken by invading Hebrews (Israelites/Jews) in the days of Moses. Aroer’s ancient site is at Arair, Jordan. So, Joab started taking the census in the southeast of Israel’s territory and then moved north. Then they returned to west of the Jordan River, where most of the tribes had settled. Only the tribes of Gad, Reuben, and half the tribe of Manasseh settled in what is now the country of Jordan.

This is how Jewish scholars just before the birth of Jesus translated the mysterious Hebrew word Tahtim-hodshi. They used that phrasing for the first Greek Bible of Hebrew scriptures. They called the Bible version the Septuagint. The route of the census takers isn’t clear. Some scholars say the writer may have been pointing out nothing more than landmark locations along the borders of Israel. The writer may have presumed that readers would figure out that the census counted everyone within those borders.

Hivites were a group of people descended from Noah’s son Ham and Ham’s son Canaan (Genesis 10:17). They lived in Canaan, in what is now Israel and Palestinian territories.

Many scholars say the numbers are too high. If each warrior on average represented a family of one wife and two children, the population could have been five million or more. That’s half as many people as Israel has in the 21st century. Many scholars say the word “thousand” more likely meant a unit or a group or an extended family. In which case, 500,000 may have meant 500 military companies of men, with 100 per company. Then Judah would have had 50,000 warriors, which is still a lot. And Israel would have had 80,000.

Jebusites were the original locals of Jerusalem. They lived on that ridgetop before David conquered it back when people called the walled city Jebus. David renamed it City of David. Who wouldn’t? His threshing floor later became the location of the altar at the first Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, which David’s son, Solomon, built.

Farmers put grain stalks on flat rocks and used oxen to drag wooden sleds over the stalks. This jarred the grain loose.

Fifty silver shekels weigh about one pound and four ounces (570 grams), roughly the weight of 100 quarters or 76 Euros. Or for sports fans, that’s four baseballs or three-and-a-half hockey pucks.

A burnt offering was the most common animal sacrifice in Israel. Worshipers burned the entire animal. See Leviticus 1.

A peace offering, described in Leviticus 3, is one of several prescribed offerings in Jewish tradition. When Israel’s people wanted to give thanks to God for something, such as good health or safety, they would sacrifice a sheep, goat, cow, or bull. They would burn part of the animal, including the kidneys and fat covering the intestines. They would eat the rest in celebration, often with family and friends. It takes a fair number of hungry people to eat a cow. But people were eager to eat meat because it was rare in Bible times for common folks to eat meat, many Bible scholars say.