And the king said to Joab the captain of the host, who was with him, Go, I pray thee, through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, and count the people, that I may know the number of the people.
David's reign closes with a command that looks harmless: send the army commander across the land to count the fighting men. Yet that order brought a plague on Israel. So what was wrong with counting?
The order covers every tribe in the land. One commentator hears in it a king surveying what he has come to think of as his own:
What a forgetfulness of the Lord! He was everything to David, and everything to Israel, yet David was now repeating the sin of Saul in principle. The people wanted a king, when God was their king; and the king thinks of the people only as his own. The people forgot that their highest portion was God. They wanted to be like the nations. And the king God gave them now wanted a people of his own, just like a foreign ruler.
David gives his reason: he wants the figure. One writer asks why a king in his position would need it:
God "had delivered David out of the hand of all his enemies" (2 Sam. 22:1). What need had he yet to know the number of his warriors? At the end of his life, at Satan's prompting, this godly king's heart went through a temptation quite contrary to his character. David had always been a humble man before the Lord and before men. It did not seem necessary for him to be on guard against pride. In the past the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh had enticed him, and he had suffered severe punishment for this. Now the pride of life tempts him. He does not resist the desire to count up his forces, to know how far he could rely on them. Chastening comes on him to teach him that he could not and should not count on anything but God alone.
Israel had counted its people before, more than once, and God approved. The difference lies in what each count was for:
The first numbering (Ex. 38:25-27) collected the silver that was to form the bases of the pillars of the tabernacle. So that count was made for the Lord, with the worship of Him in view. The second (Num. 1:2-3), at the time when Israel was about to fight the enemy, was meant to determine the number of men able to go to war. This was according to God. A third numbering (Num. 26:2, 52-65) counted those fit for military service, to divide up the land.
Numbering Israel was the Lord's right alone. David reached for it as if the people were his:
It was an offence against this particular right of the Lord that David was guilty of. He claimed something of the divine glory when he sought to number Israel, as though they had been his own people. It was a trespass on God's rights. It was an insult to the majesty of Him who was Lord and King of Israel. He might number Israel, for they were His treasured possession.
David was not the only proud one, and even his own commander saw through the order:
God allowed David to follow his natural inclination to pride in being king of so great a nation. No doubt Israel had the same proud thoughts, and God saw that this needed serious humbling. Even Joab, self-centred as he was, realised that David's desire came only from pride. He protested that it would be good to see Israel increased a hundredfold, but that taking delight in the number of the people seemed unfitting to him. It is often true that an unbeliever can see through the inconsistent ways of a believer.
The law attached a price to every census. One writer notes what seems to have been left out:
Each time Israel were numbered, each man was to give a ransom of half a shekel of silver, "that there be no plague among them, when you number them" (Ex. 30:12); and it seems the ransom money was not paid.
The chapter that begins with a proud head-count ends at a threshing floor bought for an altar:
The plague devoured thousands (2 Sam. 24). David sinned over that numbering, in the pride of his heart — in painful contrast with Him whom he foreshadowed so much. But even there mercy triumphs over judgment at Jerusalem. The threshing floor of Araunah becomes the site of the altar to the Lord, the meeting place of reconciliation for His people for ever.
- Pride starts it. The lusts of the flesh and of the eyes had tripped David before. Here the pride of life does, and he counts his forces to see how far he can lean on them.
- Ownership decides it. God may number Israel, for they are His treasured possession. When David counted them as his own, he trespassed on God's rights.
- Purpose separates it. Earlier counts served the Lord — for worship, for war, and for inheritance. This one served the king.
- Ransom covers it. The law required half a shekel from each man at every count, so that no plague would follow. It seems that price was never paid.
- Mercy outlasts it. The plague ends at a threshing floor. That purchased ground becomes the altar site — the meeting place of reconciliation.
And Joab said to the king, May Jehovah thy God even add to the people, how many soever they be, a hundredfold, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see [it]; but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?
Joab was no godly man, yet he is the one who objects here, blessing the thought of a nation a hundred times larger. His protest raises the real question of the chapter: who do the people of Israel belong to, and what does a king gain by counting them?
David's order treats Israel as his own possession. One writer ties this to Israel's old demand for a king.
Oh, what a forgetfulness of the Lord! He was everything to David, and everything to Israel, yet David was now repeating the sin of Saul in principle. The people would have a king, when God was their king; and the king thinks of the people only as his own. The people forgot their highest portion was God, and wanted to be like the nations; and the king whom God gave now sought a people just like a Gentile.
Joab answers with a blessing and a question. One writer turns to the parallel record in 1 Chronicles, where Joab says more.
Satan had blinded David's eyes, but Joab saw the danger. In 1 Chronicles 21:3 we read that he said to David: "May the LORD add to His people a hundred times as many as they are! But, my lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants? Why then should my lord require this? Why should it be a cause of guilt for Israel?"
One writer reads Joab's objection as plain arithmetic: a census adds no soldiers.
Joab would not worry much about a sin if he could see some good come out of it. But he could not understand how a man like David would compromise himself so deeply when nothing at all would change. After all, numbering the people would not bring in one more man. Why take so much trouble and risk a sin, with no practical result?
God twice told Moses to count the people, and each time He gave a reason for it.
God directed Moses to number the people on two occasions. The first went with their camping in the wilderness (Numbers 1). The second had special reference to the different tribal allotments in the land (26:2). Each time he numbered the men from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war. This showed the fighting strength of the people. After they entered the land, God never commanded them to be numbered. There was then no occasion for this census. Joab and the captains of the army knew that well, and they urged David not to do it.
The law set a price on every man counted.
Every time Israel was numbered, each man was to give a ransom of half a shekel of silver, "that there be no plague among them when you number them" (Exodus 30:12). It seems the ransom money was never paid.
Joab never mentions that payment. One writer marks the limit of what a man like Joab could do.
He looked upon Israel as a people belonging to Jehovah; and on David, as committing a trespass in having them numbered for himself. But, like all unbelievers, though he could point out the fault, he was not able to direct David to the remedy. He did not allude to the atonement-money.
Joab is right here, and that is what makes the scene shameful.
Joab criticizes his master. This man who had never judged himself condemns the man of God. The king's word "was abominable to Joab." What a shame that a man like David should be rebuked by a man like Joab! Why should David commit this profane and useless act?
David cannot see what his general sees at once. That blindness is part of the sin itself.
And pride is the giant sin of a fallen nature, the essential evil, man lifting himself up, even against God. It is therefore the pattern of all sin, and God must show Himself against it, in His very mercy. So He brings it into the open and strikes it. It is so plain to see, and the man driven by it is so blind, that Joab sees at once the evil which David cannot see.
The same warning reaches beyond kings. One writer applies it to counting Christians:
We have sometimes seen the same kind of presumption when people boast about how many Christians there are and how well they seem to be doing. Fatal consequences always follow.
- Whose people? Joab's question exposes the flaw: David counted as owner what God owned, thinking of Israel "only as his own."
- Whose increase? Joab's blessing hands growth back to God — a hundredfold more is His to give, and counting "would not bring one more man."
- Whose command? After Israel entered the land, God never ordered another census; this one had no occasion behind it.
- Whose ransom? The law asked half a shekel for each man counted, so that no plague would follow. Joab saw the fault but never pointed to the remedy.
- Whose blindness? Pride is the one sin everybody sees except the man holding it; a self-serving general read David better than David read himself.
But the king's word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the army. And Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king to count the people of Israel.
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