2 Samuel 24 · a question people ask
What was wrong with counting the people?
The chapter doesn't name the wrong. It gives Joab's question, "why does my lord the king delight in this thing?" (24:3), and in Chronicles he adds, "Why will he be a cause of guilt to Israel?" (1 Chronicles 21:3). It gives David's own words, "I have sinned greatly in that which I have done" and "I have done very foolishly" (24:10). 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). 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 (24:10, 24:17), 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" (24:15). 2 Samuel 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 · 2 Samuel 24:2 · 2 Samuel 24:15
Trusting in numbers
Those who read it this way note what was counted: "valiant men who drew the sword" (24:9). Joab's answer puts the increase in the LORD's hands: "Now may the LORD your God add to the people, however many they may be, one hundred times" (24:3). Chronicles says, "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" (1 Chronicles 27:23), and that Joab "began to take a census, but didn’t finish; and wrath came on Israel for this" (1 Chronicles 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 the sum of the people" (24:2).
2 Samuel 24:9 · 2 Samuel 24:3 · 1 Chronicles 27:23-24 · Psalm 20:7 · 2 Samuel 24:2
The verses
“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?””
“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?””
“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.””
““Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of the names, every male, one by one,”