1 Chronicles 21 · a question people ask
Who moved David to count the people: Satan, or the LORD?
Chronicles says, "Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to take a census of Israel" (21:1). 2 Samuel, telling of the same census, says, "Again the LORD’s anger burned against Israel, and he moved David against them" (2 Samuel 24:1). In Hebrew moved is the same verb in both verses, sut, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "incite, allure, instigate" (tap moved). 2 Samuel 24's honest question asks the same thing and sets out the same two readings as this one. Christians read the two verses together in two main ways, each resting on verses. Both agree on what the chapter says: David calls the count his own sin, "I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing" (21:8), and again, "It is even I who have sinned and done very wickedly" (21:17); and neither verse says what Israel had done to anger the LORD. Both views also read the verses beside James: "God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one" (James 1:13).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Satan acted, and the LORD allowed it
Those who read it this way take Chronicles as naming the one who did the moving: "Satan stood up against Israel" (21:1). 2 Samuel can say "he moved David" (2 Samuel 24:1) because nothing Satan does is outside the LORD's rule. In Job, Satan acts against Job only as far as the LORD allows: "Behold, all that he has is in your power. Only on himself don’t stretch out your hand" (Job 1:12), and "Behold, he is in your hand. Only spare his life" (Job 2:6). On this reading the LORD permitted what Satan did.
1 Chronicles 21:1 · 2 Samuel 24:1 · Job 1:12 · Job 2:6
The LORD's anger at work
Those who read it this way start where 2 Samuel starts: "Again the LORD’s anger burned against Israel" (2 Samuel 24:1). They read the census as the LORD's judgment on Israel, and Satan in Chronicles as the one the LORD used for it. They point to Micaiah's vision, where "A spirit came out and stood before the LORD, and said, ‘I will entice him.’" (1 Kings 22:21), and the prophet told Ahab, "the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets" (1 Kings 22:23); to "an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him" (1 Samuel 16:14); and to Joseph's words, "you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good" (Genesis 50:20). On this reading the LORD can have a purpose in David's act without making it right, and David still calls it his own sin (21:8).
2 Samuel 24:1 · 1 Kings 22:21-23 · 1 Samuel 16:14 · Genesis 50:20 · 1 Chronicles 21:8
The verses
“Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to take a census of Israel.”
“Again the LORD’s anger burned against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, “Go, count Israel and Judah.””
“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.””
“David said to God, “Isn’t it I who commanded the people to be counted? It is even I who have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O LORD my God, be against me and against my father’s house; but not against your people, that they should be plagued.””