Num 1:2, 26:1-2, 2Sa 24:1-10 | TSK | STEP | Take ye the sum.This numbering was probably intended to illustrate the Divine faithfulness in thus increasing the seed of Abraham; to prepare them to preserve due order in their march; and to distinguish the tribes and families. the children. after.

Numbers 1:2

Take ye the sum.This numbering was probably intended to illustrate the Divine faithfulness in thus increasing the seed of Abraham; to prepare them to preserve due order in their march; and to distinguish the tribes and families.

26:2-4,63,64; Ex 30:12; 38:26; 2Sa 24:1-3; 1Ch 21:1,2; 27:23,24

the children.

Ge 49:1-3; Ex 1:1-5

after.

18,22,26-54; Ex 6:14-19

Numbers 26:1-2

1 The sum of all Israel is taken in the plains of Moab.

52 The law of dividing among them the inheritance of the land.

57 The families and number of the Levites.

63 None was left of them which were numbered at Sinai, but Caleb and Joshua.

25:9 The plague having swept away the last of that devoted generation, which provoked the Lord to "swear in his wrath that they should not enter" Canaan; he now, after an interval of 38 years, commands another census of the Israelites to be made, to preserve the distinction of families, and to regulate the tribes previous to their entry into the promised land, as well as to ascertain the proportion of land which should be allotted to each tribe. For, though the whole was divided by lot, yet the portions were so disposed, that a numerous tribe did not draw where the lots assigned small inheritances, or the contrary.

1:2,3; Ex 30:12; 38:25,26

2 Samuel 24:1-10

1 David, tempted by Satan, forces Joab to number the people.

5 The captains, in nine months and twenty days, bring the muster of thirteen hundred thousand fighting men.

10 David repents, and having three plagues propounded by God, chooses the three days' pestilence.

15 After the death of three score and ten thousand, David by prayer prevents the destruction of Jerusalem.

18 David, by God's direction, purchases Araunah's threshing floor; where having sacrificed, the plague stays.

A.M. 2987. B.C. 1017. An. Ex. Is. 474. again.

21:1-14

he.This verse, when read without reference to any other part of the word of God, is very difficult to understand, and has been used by those who desire to undermine the justice of God, to shew that he sought occasion to punish--that he incited David to sin; and when he had so incited him, gave to him the dreadful alternative of choosing one of three scourges by which his people were to be cut off. On the face of the passage these thoughts naturally arise, because "the Lord" is the antecedent to the pronoun "he,"--He moved David. But to those who "search the Scriptures," this exceedingly difficult passage receives a wonderful elucidation, By referring to 1 Ch 21:1, the reader will there find that Satan was the mover, and that the Lord most righteously punished David for the display of pride he had manifested. Oh! that Christians, who sometimes have their minds harassed with doubts, would remember the promise, that what they know not now they shall know hereafter; and if no other instance of elucidation than this passage occurred to them to remove their doubts, let this be a means of stirring them up to dig deeper than ever into the inexhaustible mines of the Inspired Word.

Jas 1:13,14

moved.

12:11; 16:10; Ge 45:5; 50:20; Ex 7:3; 1Sa 26:19; 1Ki 22:20-23

Eze 14:9; 20:25; Ac 4:28; 2Th 2:11

Go, number.

1Ch 27:23,24

Joab.

2:13; 8:16; 20:23; 23:37

Go now, etc. or, Compass now all.

1Ch 21:2

from Dan.

3:10; 17:11; Jud 20:1

and number.We know not in what the sinfulness of this action consisted. Some think it was a contempt of the promise that the Israelites should be innumerable, and that they ought not to have been numbered without an express command, as in the days of Moses. Others suppose with Josephus that it was a kind of sacrilege, in omitting to collect the half-shekel a-piece for the use of the sanctuary. It however would appear that pride and ambition, and a desire of conquest, induced David to this measure, and rendered it so displeasing to God.

that I may.

De 8:13,14; 2Ch 32:25,26,31; Pr 29:23; Jer 17:5; 2Co 12:7

10:12; 1Ch 21:3,4; Ps 115:14; Pr 14:28; Isa 60:5

the king's.

1Ch 21:4; Ec 8:4

went out.

Ex 1:17; Ac 5:29

Aroer.

De 2:36; Jos 13:9,16; 1Sa 30:28; Isa 17:2

river. or, valley. Jazer.

Nu 32:1,3,35; Isa 16:8,9

Gilead.