2 Samuel 24:1

Was kindled. The cause of the displeasure is here not given. The context suggests that the source may have been the increased pride and self-confidence of Israel that resulted from the newly attained national greatness. Ambition for worldly greatness and a desire to be like the nations round about had arisen, and with it had come a decreasing sense of the solemn destiny to which the nation had been called.

He moved. That is, the Lord did so. The parallel account says, “And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel” (1 Chron. 21:1). These statements are not necessarily contradictory but may simply represent two aspects of the same incident. In the verse under consideration we have another instance where God is said to do that which He does not prevent (see PP 728, 739). It was actually Satan who instigated the pride and ambition that led Israel’s king to promote procedures to increase the size of his army for the purpose of extending the boundaries of Israel by new military conquests (see PP 747).

Number Israel. There is nothing in the narrative to indicate precisely when in the life of David this incident took place. The fact that Joab was engaged in the work for almost ten months (v. 8) shows that it must have been at a time of freedom from war. In the parallel account (1 Chron. 24:21) the narrative is immediately followed by the record of David’s preparations for the building of the Temple. In both Samuel and Chronicles these preparations are among the last items to be recorded for David’s reign. All this leads to the conclusion that the military census took place toward the end of David’s reign.