2 Samuel 23 – 24 part 13
Tonight we will be finishing up 2 Samuel as we examine the last 2 chapters. As we go through chapter we will discovery several instances of what appears on the surface to be contradictions. So let us begin by looking verse 1.
2 Samuel 23:1 Now
these are the last words of David. Thus says David the son of
Jesse; Thus says the man raised up on high, The anointed of the God of
Jacob, And the sweet psalmist of
David is telling us that
He is God anointed and that God spoke through David many times and we can
certainly see that David made many prophetic statements about Jesus in his
Psalms. Verse tells that those who rule over men should to do justly just as
God is just in his judgments. It also points out that the ruler should fear God
because the only reason they are ruler or have any power at is because God has
allowed it.
4
And he shall be like the light of the morning when the sun rises,
A morning without clouds, Like the tender grass springing out of
the earth, By clear shining after rain.'
5 "Although my house is not so with God, Yet He
has made with me an everlasting covenant, Ordered in all things and
secure. For this is all my salvation and all my desire; Will He
not make it increase? 6
But the sons of rebellion shall all be as thorns thrust
away, Because they cannot be taken with hands.
7 But the man who touches them Must be armed with iron
and the shaft of a spear, And they shall be utterly burned with fire in their
place."
This God fearing ruler is suppose to be a shinning example to his people like a morning without clouds. But David admits the he and household have failed to be that type of example but because of the promise that was made to David as being the seed of promise to the coming Messiah God has shown mercy on him and his house hold. Then he speaks about the destruction of those who rebel against God.
The rest of the chapter has to do David’s mighty men. Now before we start examining the scriptures I want to lay the foundation of some difference that we are going to see between what 2 Samuel and the account in 1 Chronicles. First when it comes using numbers in the Hebrew you find variation from time to time and there are least 2 reasons for this. 1. They were not concerned with a specific number and many time they rounded off. For instance one place may 800 and another may say 1000. 2. A second reason come from the text being miscopied by the scribe especially when it comes to numbers and so it was very easy for numbers to get copied down wrong. The same thing happens with names that are given. All it takes is slightest variation to make the name slightly different. Now this does not take away from the accuracy of the Bible and when you find differences like these it is never in area that would affect your salvation or take away from the truth of the event. Finally we need to consider that 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles were written by different authors and so just in the gospels one writer give more detail than the other of any given event and this is not contradiction but simply additional information.
Our first example comes from verse 8.
2 Samuel 23:8 These are the names of the mighty men
whom David had: Josheb-Basshebeth (JOE-sheb-bash-ee-beth) the
Tachmonite, (tak-muh-night) chief
among the captains. He was called Adino the Eznite, because he had killed eight
hundred men at one time.
This is one of 3 of David’s mighty men. Now according to this text he was called Adino Ezinite which literally means “the strong spear” because he killed 800 men. Now it possible that this means that he killed them himself or killed this many under his command. Now notice the parallel account in,
1 Chronicles 11:11 And this is the number of
the mighty men whom David had: Jashobeam (juh-SHOE-bih-uhm) the son of a Hachmonite, chief
of the captains; he had lifted up his spear against three hundred,
killed by him at one time.
Here is a great example of what I was talking
about earlier. From what I found the Hebrew Scholars believe that 1 Chron.
11:11 is more accurate because there are more textual variances in 2 Sam 23.
Now just to remind you when I say textual variance what I mean is certain words or certain numbers
will differ in the various manuscripts from which we get the OT. Now we know we
are talking about the same person as this man was the chief of the captains,
this same exact Hebrew phrase is used in both these verses.
However the Hebrew is different in these verses
when it starts describing how he had slain these men.
This gives us 2 possibilities of why one says 800 and the other 300. 1. This
could simple be the case where the number was copied down wrong by a scribe in
one place or the other. 2. A second possibility is that in Samuel account 800
men describe both those killed by Jashobeam (juh-SHOE-bih-uhm) himself and by those under his command and
1Chron 11:11 could be referring specifically to those who killed by Jashobeam (juh-SHOE-bih-uhm) himself. Whatever
the case we can see that these differences in number had a possible explanation
and this difference does not take away from the overall truth of the text nor is it salvation issue. We will be
looking at more of these type of things later on in our lesson.
2 Samuel 23:9 And after him was Eleazar
the son of Dodo, the Ahohite, (a-hoe-hite) one of the three mighty men with
David when they defied the Philistines who were gathered there for
battle, and the men of
Here is our second mighty man of David and we see
that he fought so long and hard that his hand had stuck to the sword. I think I
can relate to this and so can some of you. Have you ever had to hold the handle
of something and apply a great deal strength to it for a long time? Do you know
what happens? When you finally try to let go of it your hand is stuck to it.
Even when you manage to get thing out our your hand you hand is to conformed to
the shape of holding the handle. I have had to literally straighten out my
fingers with my other hand and my finger would creak as I did so and that is what I think was going
on with this man.
2 Samuel 23:11 And after him was Shammah
the son of Agee the Hararite. (hair-uh-right) The Philistines had gathered together into
a troop where there was a piece of ground full of lentils. Then the people fled
from the Philistines. 12 But
he stationed himself in the middle of the field, defended it, and killed the
Philistines. And the LORD brought about a great victory.
Here is our third man of David’s might men who
found himself in the middle of field of Lintels which are at type of a bean or
a pea.
2 Samuel 23:13 Then three of the thirty chief men
went down at harvest time and came to David at the
Here is very honorable story of where David was
just expressing how he would like a drink form the well of
2 Samuel 23:18 Now Abishai the brother of Joab,
the son of Zeruiah, was chief of another three. He lifted his spear
against three hundred men, killed them, and won a name among these
three. 19 Was he not the
most honored of three? Therefore he became their captain. However, he did not
attain to the first three. 20
Benaiah was the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man from Kabzeel, (kab-zi-uhl)
who had done many deeds. He had killed two lion-like heroes of
In these verse we are just given more details of
those who stood out in David’s army and you continue on through the end of the
chapter you see more of these might men of David named. With God being on his
side and having these elite men made David very successful in any battle he
fought. Now lets look at out last
chapter.
2 Samuel 24:1Again the anger of the LORD was
aroused against
Here we another interesting text which says that
God moved David to count the people but as we will find out God punishes David
for doing this. So the question that would come to mind is why is God punishing
David for what he has moved him to do? In order to answers questions like these
we cannot limit ourselves to one verse we take the whole council of God and
look at other examples to shed light up on what happening in this verse.
The first thing I want to point out is that Joab
knew that this was wrong and questioned David of why he desires it. Now I
believe that we will see that David had a prideful motive to see how big his
kingdom was and we will see that God didn’t command David to simply number the
people just so he could punish him but instead God is allowing David to carry
out that which was in his heart and then he punishes him because of his sinful
choice.
We have several examples of God doing this before
David and after David. For instance, the Bible states that God hardened the
Pharaoh’s heart and it also states that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. God
didn’t make Pharaoh do the things he did but he did allow him. Another example
is found in the story of Balaam Numbers 22 when Balaam is told by God not to go
with the men to Balak to curse the children of Israel in verse 12 but verse 35
after he ask God again God allow him to go with them. But find out real quick
by the end of the chapter the God did not approve of his action he simply
allowed him to go because an angel was going to kill him but fortunately for
Balaam his donkey spoke to him and saved his life.
Then as we move into the NT notice we find out
about Judas.
John 13:27 Now after the piece of bread, Satan
entered him. Then Jesus said to him, "What you do, do quickly."
Here we see Jesus basically telling Judas go and
betray me. But notice the next verse.
John 13:2
And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of
Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray Him,
Again we see that the
devil had already tempted Judas heart and Jesus is just telling him to do what
he has already decided to do.
These 3 examples show clearly what was going on
with David numbering the children of
1 Chronicles 21:1 Now Satan stood up against
So, based on the whole council of God, God allowed
David do that which he desired to do.
Now our next couple of verses are going have to be looked at closely as
well.
2 Samuel 24:5 And they crossed over the Jordan
and camped in Aroer, (ah-row-er) on the right side of the town which is in
the midst of the ravine of Gad, and toward Jazer. 6 Then they came to Gilead and to
the
Once again we are going
to see a difference in the numbers that are used. Please notice what,
1 Chronicles 21:5 Then Joab gave the sum of the
number of the people to David. All
Now we are not given a lot information about this
account but I did find one more verse that talks about this incident.
1 Chronicles 27:24 Joab the son of Zeruiah began a
census, but he did not finish, for wrath came upon
We learn that Joab didn’t count all the people
because he abhorred David’s command and
because God’s wrath came on them before it was possible to do so. Now how do we
account for differences in the numbers given. Again, we need to remember that
we have two different authors writing from different perspectives and the
language is slightly different and I can see how both accounts are correct.
First look at Samuel account it says,
Sam. And
there were in
Chron. All
Notice the differences used to describe the
people. Samuels account there were in
Sam. the
men of
Chron.
Again we have a difference Samuel simply states
that there were 500,000 men while Chron. Specifically states that there 470,
that drew the sword. Another
possibility is that Samuel account rounded the number why Chronicles gave a
more specific number.
So, as you
examine these closely you can see that no contradiction exist but these numbers
are given from different perspectives.
2 Samuel 24:10 And David's heart condemned him
after he had numbered the people. So David said to the LORD, "I have
sinned greatly in what I have done; but now, I pray, O LORD, take away the
iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly." 11 Now when David arose in the
morning, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Gad, David's seer,
saying, 12 "Go and tell
David, 'Thus says the LORD: "I offer you three things; choose one of them
for yourself, that I may do it to you." ' " 13 So Gad came to David and told
him; and he said to him, "Shall seven years of famine come to you in your
land? Or shall you flee three months before your enemies, while they pursue
you? Or shall there be three days' plague in your land? Now consider and see
what answer I should take back to Him who sent me." 14 And David said to Gad, "I
am in great distress. Please let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for His
mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man." 15 So the LORD sent a plague upon
Here David was given 3
choices of what punishment he would receive and decides to let God make the
decision but he didn’t want to fall at the hand of his enemy so God sends a
plague that wipes 70,000 men this probably a greater lose than David had ever
imagined and we can see that David cries out to God to spare the others and to
take out his wrath on him and household. We can see that God is even merciful
during this time as keeps the death angel from destroying more. Now we see this
mercy begins at the threshing floor of Araunah (a-row-nah) which brings is to out
finally difficult text of the evening.
2 Samuel 24:18 And Gad came that day to David and
said to him, "Go up, erect an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of
Araunah (a-row-nah) the
Jebusite." 19 So David,
according to the word of Gad, went up as the LORD commanded. 20 Now Araunah looked, and saw the
king and his servants coming toward him. So Araunah went out and bowed before
the king with his face to the ground. 21
Then Araunah (a-row-nah) said, "Why has my lord the king come to
his servant?" And David said, "To buy the threshing floor from you,
to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be withdrawn from the
people." 22 Now Araunah (a-row-nah) said to David, "Let my lord the king
take and offer up whatever seems good to him. Look, here are oxen
for burnt sacrifice, and threshing implements and the yokes of the oxen for
wood. 23 "All these, O
king, Araunah (a-row-nah) has given to the king." And Araunah said
to the king, "May the LORD your God accept you." 24 Then the king said to Araunah,
"No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I
offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God with that which costs me
nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty
shekels of silver. 25 And
David built there an altar to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace
offerings. So the LORD heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was
withdrawn from
This site was considered special so as the story
goes David buys and it later becomes the site the Solomon builds the temple on.
As we come to close of the book of Samuel we see that the plague is over. Now when
you look at the parallel account 1 Chron. you will find that this man Araunah
is called by Ornan. (awr-nan) These
are two different Hebrew words however Strong’s Lexicon suggest that Ornan (awr-nan) originally came from Arunah. (a-row-nah)
This goes back to the idea
that I told that all it takes is slight variation in the Hebrew name to change
it up slightly and some instances these people are simply referred to by
different names. One last thing I want point is that Samuel’s account says
this,
Sam. David
bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
1 Chronicles 21:25 So David gave Ornan (awr-nan) six
hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place.
Again we are being given this story from 2
different perspectives. Sam specifically states that he bought the threshing
floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. None of the other things are
mentioned like the wood or the wheat or the land surrounding the threshing
floor. However Chron account gives us the amount spent on the site or the
place. We need to keep in mind that this is the site that the temple would be
built and the threshing floor was certainly not big enough to house the temple
and so David would have bought the land around the threshing floor as well. So
the Oxen and the threshing floor would have been worth about 50 shekels of
silver but and the land around this with everything that went with it would be
worth a lot more like the 600 shekels of Gold given by Chronicles account. So, once
again we can see there is a plausible way harmonize these scriptures without them contradicting each
other.
I hope you have enjoyed the lessons on 2 Samuel I
know I have and I hope this lesson has taught you that you dig a little deeper
and to examine difficult text like these from all different angles to gain a
better understanding of it. While some scriptures may be challenging I have yet
to find a real contradiction. Please remember a real contradiction is something
that cannot be explained away or harmonized.