1 Chronicles 21 · a question people ask
What was wrong with counting the people?
The chapter doesn't name the wrong. It says, "God was displeased with this thing" (21:7). It gives Joab's questions, "Why does my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of guilt to Israel?" (21:3), and says, "the king’s word was abominable to Joab" (21:6). It gives David's own words, "I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing" and "I have done very foolishly" (21:8). Counting isn't wrong in itself: the LORD told Moses, "Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel" (Numbers 1:2). 2 Samuel 24's honest question asks the same thing and sets out the same two readings as this one. Christians read the wrong here in two main ways, each resting on verses. Both agree that the text calls it sin through David's own mouth (21:8, 21:17), and that it doesn't say more.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
A count without the ransom
Those who read it this way point to the Law's word about a census: "When you take a census of the children of Israel, according to those who are counted among them, then each man shall give a ransom for his soul to the LORD when you count them, that there be no plague among them when you count them" (Exodus 30:12). After this count, "the LORD sent a pestilence on Israel" (21:14). 1 Chronicles doesn't mention the half shekel, and Exodus doesn't say more about why counting brought danger; on this reading what came is what Exodus 30:12 warned of.
Exodus 30:12 · 1 Chronicles 21:2 · 1 Chronicles 21:14
Trusting in numbers
Those who read it this way note what was counted: "men who drew a sword" (21:5). Joab's answer puts the increase in the LORD's hands: "May the LORD make his people a hundred times as many as they are" (21:3). Later in the book Chronicles says, "But David didn’t take the number of them from twenty years old and under, because the LORD had said he would increase Israel like the stars of the sky" (27:23), and that Joab "began to take a census, but didn’t finish; and wrath came on Israel for this" (27:24). A psalm says, "Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God" (Psalm 20:7). On this reading the wrong was in wanting to know the strength of the army, "that I may know how many there are" (21:2).
1 Chronicles 21:5 · 1 Chronicles 21:3 · 1 Chronicles 27:23-24 · Psalm 20:7 · 1 Chronicles 21:2
The verses
“God was displeased with this thing; therefore he struck Israel.”
“Joab said, “May the LORD make his people a hundred times as many as they are. But, my lord the king, aren’t they all my lord’s servants? Why does my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of guilt to Israel?””
“But he didn’t count Levi and Benjamin among them, for the king’s word was abominable to Joab.”
“David said to God, “I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.””