2 Samuel 24

Again the LORD’s anger burned against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, “Go, count Israel and Judah.”

The king said to Joab the captain of the army, who was with him, “Now go back and forth through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and count the people, that I may know the sum of the people.”

Joab said to the king, “Now may the LORD your God add to the people, however many they may be, one hundred times; and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king delight in this thing?”

Notwithstanding, the king’s word prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the army. Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king to count the people of Israel.

They passed over the Jordan and encamped in Aroer, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad, and to Jazer;

then they came to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim Hodshi; and they came to Dan Jaan and around to Sidon,

and came to the stronghold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites and of the Canaanites; and they went out to the south of Judah, at Beersheba.

So when they had gone back and forth through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.

Joab gave up the sum of the counting of the people to the king; and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.

David’s heart struck him after he had counted the people. David said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in that which I have done. But now, the LORD, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.”

When David rose up in the morning, the LORD’s word came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying,

“Go and speak to David, ‘The LORD says, “I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.”’”

So Gad came to David, and told him, saying, “Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? Now answer, and consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.”

David said to Gad, “I am in distress. Let us fall now into the LORD’s hand, for his mercies are great. Let me not fall into man’s hand.”

So the LORD sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning even to the appointed time; and seventy thousand men died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba.

When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough. Now withdraw your hand.” The LORD’s angel was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

David spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel who struck the people, and said, “Behold, I have sinned, and I have done perversely; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me, and against my father’s house.”

Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”

David went up according to the saying of Gad, as the LORD commanded.

Araunah looked out, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. Then Araunah went out and bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground.

Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy your threshing floor, to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people.”

Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Behold, the cattle for the burnt offering, and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood.

All this, O king, does Araunah give to the king.” Araunah said to the king, “May the LORD your God accept you.”

The king said to Araunah, “No, but I will most certainly buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

David built an altar to the LORD there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD was entreated for the land, and the plague was removed from Israel.

Chapter overviewAI-generated

Overview.
This chapter recounts David’s census of Israel and its severe consequences, marking the final episode in the narrative of David’s reign. Though earlier chapters depict David’s victories and faithfulness, here his pride in numbering the people incurs God’s judgment. The passage moves from divine provocation and human failure to repentance, judgment, and atonement, culminating in David’s purchase of Araunah’s threshing floor—the future site of the temple—where God mercifully stays the plague.

Flow.

The LORD incites David to count Israel and Judah, despite Joab’s hesitation and the king’s own recognition of the act’s folly.
After the census is completed, David repents, and God sends judgment through the prophet Gad, offering three forms of punishment.
David chooses pestilence, resulting in 70,000 deaths, until God relents as the destroying angel nears Jerusalem.
David erects an altar on Araunah’s threshing floor after purchasing it at full price, offering sacrifices that turn away God’s wrath.

Connections.
Following chapter 23, which records David’s final words and the heroic acts of his warriors, chapter 24 serves as a somber conclusion to David’s life story, underscoring his sin and need for grace. It revisits themes of divine sovereignty and human responsibility that have threaded through David’s rise and failures. While earlier chapters emphasized God’s faithfulness to His promises (e.g., the Davidic covenant in 2 Samuel 7), this chapter highlights the ongoing reality of sin and judgment even within the covenant. It sets the stage for the transition to Solomon and the temple in 1 Kings, as the threshing floor becomes the divinely chosen place of atonement—pointing forward to the fulfillment of worship and sacrifice under the monarchy.

What it teaches.
This chapter illustrates the seriousness of pride and disobedience, even among God’s anointed, and the reality of corporate suffering due to leadership sin. David’s repentance and God’s merciful withdrawal of judgment reflect the balance of justice and grace seen in Scripture. The insistence that offerings cost something (WCF 18.1, LC Q. 112) is embodied in David’s refusal to offer what costs him nothing, prefiguring the necessity of costly atonement. God’s provision of both the place and means of sacrifice aligns with the principle that true worship is responsive to divine command and enabled by divine mercy (HC LD 32, WCF 14.2).

Apply.
True worship involves surrender, sacrifice, and the recognition that only God can provide a remedy for sin.

AI-generated. Not a substitute for Scripture, your pastor, or the confessions.