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2 Samuel 24 Bible study: Which cost me nothing
"David’s heart struck him" (24:10) is, in Hebrew, the same four words as when he cut Saul's robe (1 Samuel 24:5). And the first and last stories of the book's last four chapters end with the same Hebrew verb for prayer: God "answered prayer for the land" after the famine (21:14), and the LORD "was entreated for the land" at David's altar (24:25).
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“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.””
Try it · Did you catch it?
“The WEB says "David's heart struck him" both after he cut Saul's robe and after he counted the people.”
Is that in 2 Samuel 24, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
"Go, count Israel and Judah"
The chapter opens, "Again the LORD’s anger burned against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, “Go, count Israel and Judah.”" (24:1). It doesn't say what the earlier time was, or what Israel had done (see the honest question). The king tells Joab, "count the people, that I may know the sum of the people" (24:2) (tap count). Joab answers with a blessing and a question: "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?" (24:3). "Notwithstanding, the king’s word prevailed against Joab" (24:4). The captains cross the Jordan, go around to Sidon and to Tyre, and go out to the south of Judah, at Beersheba (24:5-7), and "came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days" (24:8). The sum: "there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men" (24:9).
Where it leads to Jesus
For the sheep
2 Samuel 24:17leads toJohn 10:15
When David saw the angel who struck the people, he 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" (24:17). The tribes had reminded him that the LORD said to him, "You will be shepherd of my people Israel" (5:2). Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and I’m known by my own" (John 10:14), and "I lay down my life for the sheep" (John 10:15). Jesus doesn't cite 2 Samuel 24, so setting the two side by side is a reading. Some set them together because in both a shepherd speaks of himself in place of the sheep: David asks that the LORD's hand be against him and his father's house (24:17), and Jesus says he lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:15). Others read each in its own setting: David speaks as the one who has sinned (24:17), and the plague was removed after the altar and the offerings (24:25); Jesus speaks of himself and his own sheep, "even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father" (John 10:15).
Honest questions
Questions people ask about 2 Samuel 24
That was a taste
The rest of 2 Samuel 24 is waiting in Favor
- David's heart struck him
- Into the LORD's hand
- Which cost me nothing
- Prayer for the land, first and last
- Araunah, Ornan, and Mount Moriah
- 11 questions as you read
- 13 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it
נָכָהnakahsay na-KAH
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "smite". Strong's: "to strike (lightly or severely, literally or figuratively)". "David’s heart struck him after he had counted the people" (24:10). In Hebrew the words are vayyakh lev David oto, the same four words as "Afterward, David’s heart struck him because he had cut off Saul’s skirt" (1 Samuel 24:5). The chapter uses the verb once more, of "the angel who struck the people" (24:17). David's heart struck him before the angel struck the people.
For your group
2 Samuel 24 Bible study questions
- 1Joab asked the king, "why does my lord the king delight in this thing?" (24:3), but "the king’s word prevailed against Joab" (24:4). Who in your life asks you that kind of question, and how do you usually take it?
- 2In distress, David said, "Let us fall now into the LORD’s hand, for his mercies are great" (24:14). When have you had to trust God's mercy more than your own way out?
- 3David would not offer the LORD "burnt offerings… which cost me nothing" (24:24). What would it look like this week for your worship or your giving to cost you something?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads 2 Samuel 24 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home