Tag Archives: 2 Samuel 23

April 16, 2024 Bible Study — David Builds an Altar

Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Samuel 23-24.

I am not sure when relative to the other things which happened during David’s reign the things in today’s passage occurred.  It begins by recounting David’s last words.  I will state that I am unsure if we are meant to understand these to be the last words he spoke before he died, or a statement David desired to be repeated after his death about his life.  The passage goes on to recount some of the exploits of David’s mightiest warriors and then lists the name of those warriors.  Finally, the passage contains the account of David’s census and the plague which followed.  It tells us that this plague led to David building an altar where Solomon would later build the temple.  Interestingly, it contains what at first appear to be two different accounts about how the plague ended.  First, it says that as the angel delivering the plague was about to strike Jerusalem God commanded it to stop.  Second, it says that Gad told David to build an altar at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place where it first said the angel was when God commanded it to stop.  In the second part it tells us that God stopped the plague after David offered sacrifices there.  After giving it some thought, I think we are supposed to see these two things as being together.  David built the altar at the place he saw the angel and offered sacrifices which led God to stop it from continuing to spread the plague, and God stopped the plague at that place so that David would know where to build the altar.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

April 16, 2023 Bible Study — A Leader Should Seek To Keep Those He Leads From Suffering For His Mistakes

Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Samuel 23-24.

Today’s passage starts with what it says are David’s last words.  I do not think they mean that he spoke this on his death bed.  Rather, I think this was a psalm he put together when he realized that he would soon die which was intended to be his last message to the people of Israel, sort of like the farewell speech a President might give as he leaves office.  Then the passage gives us a list of the men whose exploits led to so much of David’s success.  Finally, we have the account of David’s census and the plague which resulted from it, leading to David selecting the spot where the Temple would be built.  Again, we see Joab try to talk David out of this bad idea (although the passage does not explain why it was a bad idea), which is yet another example of the complex relationship between David and Joab.  According to this passage, when David received the results of this census he realized that he had sinned against God by having this census taken.  As I said, the passage does not explain what sin David had committed here.  Perhaps it was his failure to collect the “census tax” which God had commanded Moses to collect, or, perhaps it was because David felt the need to know the number of fighting men he could muster rather than relying on God that there would be enough for whatever wars God led him into.

In any case, when the prophet Gad came to David the following morning offering David a choice of consequences, David chose to fall into the hands of God, rather than into the hands of men.  Then later, when David witnessed the people suffering, he asked God to not punish the people he led for his sin but instead to punish him directly.  Whenever my Dad spoke about this passage he always focused on David’s desire that God mete out the punishment for his sin directly.  God has great mercy, but we humans all too often want others to suffer more than called for by their misdeed.  I, always think about the importance of leaders taking responsibility for their mistakes and striving to keep those they lead from suffering for them.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

April 16, 2022 Bible Study — Those Who Rule In Righteousness Shed Light All Around

Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Samuel 23-24.

I enjoy reading here about some of the exploits of David’s mighty men.  I also often struggle to understand what sin King David had committed by ordering the census of Israel (the passage never clearly tells us what that sin was).  I even find the accounts about how David chose the site on which he built an altar of interest.  However, I want to focus on what the passage records as David’s last words (I suspect that the writer here does not mean what we usually mean by “last words”).   David tells us that a one who rules with righteousness is like the light of the dawn, or that of the sun breaking through the clouds after a storm.  Those who govern in fear of God bring forth growth like the sun breaking forth after spring rains.   If one seeks to govern with righteousness, one needs to reveal that which is hidden just as the sun at dawn does.  Then he tells us that evil men will be cast aside like thorns, which are burned where they lie.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

April 16, 2021 Bible Study King David Takes A Census

Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Samuel 23-24.

Today’s passage contains a list of David’s mighty warriors and their most notable accomplishments.  This compilation makes sense of why Absalom listened to Hushai’s advice.  Surely Absalom had heard these stories, and more, growing up.  In fact, he would have grown up hearing the stories about what a great war leader his father was, leading a group of great warriors.  However, after writing that I realized the significance both of that being recorded here, and of Joab’s objection to David’s census.  Since God had provided David with such mighty warriors, he did not need numbers.  David wanted a census taken so that he knew how large of an army he could muster.  Yet, over the course of his military career, God had provided him with warriors who demonstrated that, as long as he did God’s will, he did not need numbers to obtain victory.

When David received the results of the census, he realized that he had done wrong by not putting his trust fully in God and cried out to God for forgiveness.  I want to note that throughout the story of David there are multiple occasions when he did wrong, but when he realized his sin, he confessed it and turned once more to God.  That is what made David a man of God.  On this occasion, the prophet Gad gave David a choice between three options for punishment.  David’s answer was to beg God not to allow him to fall into the hands of his human enemies.  He threw himself upon God’s mercy, accepting whatever punishment God chose to mete out to him.  Then when David saw God’s punishment falling on his people, he begged God to spare them and allow himself and his family to bear the brunt of that punishment.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

April 16, 2020 Bible Study

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Samuel 23-24.

The compiler of this book had a few more stories about David and his mighty men which did not fit into the narrative thread along with the other stories.  I suspect that the stories about the mighty warriors who followed David included here did not have any information which would allow the writer to say, “Oh, that happened in this battle.”  So, instead of sticking them in throughout his narrative and making it appear that they occurred at a different time than they actually did, he put them here at the end.  Something similar is likely true about the story of David’s census and the plague.  The story about the census was included because it explains why David built an altar on the location where the Temple was later built.  Knowing human nature, this story was considered important to counter other stories which were probably going around that the Temple was built upon the temple of some other god, or some other story which made the Temple more holy than God.

April 16, 2019 Bible Study — Others May Pay the Price When We Do Wrong

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Samuel 23-24.

Today’s passage contains what appears to be accounts about King David which the writer wanted to include, but could not fit in anywhere else.  He lists here the Three and the Thirty, mighty warriors in David’s service.  We do not really know a lot about what it meant to be one of either of these groups.  My best guess is that the Thirty was a special forces type unit in David’s forces before he became king and perhaps after as well.  I suspect that there were legends regarding many of these men, and regarding them as a group as well.  I suspect that when this book was written, the Three and the Thirty were sort of like the Knights of the Round Table or Robin Hood’s Band.  I think the writer of this book lists them out here in order to tell people that these two groups actually existed and they were real people.

I do not really understand the point of the story about the plague which followed David’s census.  Once again, the story shows us more about the relationship between David and Joab.  Joab questions the value of taking the census, but carries it out anyway when David insists.  After the census is completed, David realizes it was a bad idea and a sin (although I am not sure what the sin was that David committed by taking the census).  Perhaps the key take away comes when David chooses to suffer his punishment at the hand of God rather than at the hand of humans.  This story also teaches us that others may suffer the consequences of our sins.  All too often we tell others to stay out of our business when they point out the wrong we are doing.  However, we are often not the only ones to suffer when we do wrong, which makes it not just our business.

April 16, 2018 Bible Study — Wrapping Up the Story of David

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Samuel 23-24.

    The writer wraps up this book by listing who David’s core followers were. He gives us a few stories about the most renowned of them. It is here that we learn that Uriah, whose death David arranged to cover up his affair with Bathsheba, was a member of that core. From the perspective of the time of writing, this made David’s crime even worse: by arranging for Uriah’s death, David betrayed one of his most loyal followers.

    Then we have the story of David’s census. There is nothing about the story which tells us when it occurred although its placement in 1 Chronicles suggests that it occurred shortly after David’s married Bathsheba. One of the things which is not clear is what was wrong with taking a census. I did a little bit of searching to see if anyone gave a reason which I could understand. I found a couple of ideas suggested, but nothing clearly supported by the wording of the passage. However, I did find a couple of blogs which noted that the original Hebrew is ambiguous about WHO incited David to take this census. According to those blogs, the Hebrew merely states that David was incited to take a census. My understanding is that in other passages with similar construction in Hebrew there is a clear indication that the unnamed actor is God, which is what led the translators to say that it was God who got David to conduct the census. Take note that it was Joab who tried to convince David not to commit this sin.