Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <Yigal-Levin AT utc.edu>]

The traditional Jewish interpretation of this was that David had sinned by
the very act of taking a census of the Israelites. Exodus 30:11-13, "The
Lord spoke to Moses: When you take a census of the Israelites to register
them, at registration all of them shall give a ransom for their lives to
the Lord, so that no plague may come upon them for being registered. This
is what each one who is registered shall give: half a shekel according to
the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as
an offering to the Lord." (NRSV) has been understood as meaning that
BESIDES those places in which Moses had a direct order from God to count
the Israelites, this was a forbidden act, punishable by a plague. In fact,
Orthodox Jews to this day will refrain from counting persons, resorting to
counting "hats", "pairs of shoes" or "half shekels" instead. This has also
been linked to God's promise to Abraham, that his descendants shall be as
many as the stars - which cannot be numbered. 
So according to this interpretation, David knew that the census was
forbidden, Joab tried to talk him out of it but he insisted, and so David
and his people suffered the consequenses. Of course, modern scholarship
would have to ask: did David (if he existed!) or at least the author of 2
Sam. 24, know of the Ex. 30 tradition (in some form)? Or perhaps Ex. 30 (in
its presant redction) was written with 2 Sam 24 (or its underlying
tradition) in mind?

Yigal


At 11:58 PM 1/14/2003 +0000, Ben and Jo Crick wrote:
>On Tue 14 Jan 2003 (11:39:56), dean.young AT cda.centerpartners.com wrote:
>> I HAVE A QUESTION. IN 2 SAMUEL 24, DAVID SINNED AGAINST THE LORD. I'M
>> CONFUSED BECAUSE I DON'T SEE THE PART WHERE GOD TOLD HIM NOT TO NUMBER
>> THE PEOPLE. COULD ANYONE EXPOUND A LITTLE ON EXACTLY THE "SIN" OF DAVID AND
>> WHY HE WAS PUNISHED?
>
> It appears that YHWH was /Agent Provocateur/ in moving David to number
> the people, and then punishing him for it. But the parallel account in
> 1 Cbronicles 21:1 indicates that it was *Satan* who tempted David to sin
> against YHWH.
>
> David yielded to personal pride in wanting to know the exact number of his
> subjects; he confessed his guilt in verse 10. God gave David three options,
> but David left the decision to YHWH and his great mercies (verse 14). The
> result was a huge decrease in the number of David's subjects. The damage
> might have been much worse, had not God's great mercies halted the plague at
> the threshing-floor of Araunah (verse 16), the site of the future Temple.
>
> Ben
>-- 
> Revd Ben Crick BA CF, and Mrs Joanna (Goodwin) Crick
> <ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk>
> 232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)
> http://www.cnetwork.co.uk/crick.htm
>
>
>
>
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Dr. Yigal Levin
Dept. of Philosophy and Religion
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga TN 37403-2598
U.S.A.