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2 Samuel 24

David’s census brings confession and devastating judgment, while YHWH’s mercy halts destruction and receives sacrifice for the land.

David orders Joab to count Israel and Judah despite Joab’s objection. The account begins with YHWH’s anger against Israel, though the cause of that anger is unstated. After the count, David confesses his sin, and the prophet Gad brings a choice of judgments. A plague kills seventy thousand men before YHWH halts the destroying angel at Jerusalem. David then buys Araunah’s threshing floor and offers sacrifices there, and the plague ends.

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1Again the LORD’s anger burned against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, “Go, count Israel and Judah.”
2The king said to Joab the captain of the army, who was with him, “Now go back and forth through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and count the people, that I may know the sum of the people.”
3Joab 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?”
4Notwithstanding, the king’s word prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the army. Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king to count the people of Israel.
5They passed over the Jordan and encamped in Aroer, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad, and to Jazer;
6then they came to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim Hodshi; and they came to Dan Jaan and around to Sidon,
7and came to the stronghold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites and of the Canaanites; and they went out to the south of Judah, at Beersheba.
9Joab gave up the sum of the counting of the people to the king; and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.
10David’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.”
11When David rose up in the morning, the LORD’s word came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying,
12“Go and speak to David, ‘The LORD says, “I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.”’”
13So Gad came to David, and told him, saying, “Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? Now answer, and consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.”
14David 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.”
15So the LORD sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning even to the appointed time; and seventy thousand men died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba.
16When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough. Now withdraw your hand.” The LORD’s angel was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
17David spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel who struck the people, and 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.”
18Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”
19David went up according to the saying of Gad, as the LORD commanded.
20Araunah looked out, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. Then Araunah went out and bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground.
21Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy your threshing floor, to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people.”
22Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Behold, the cattle for the burnt offering, and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood.
23All this, O king, does Araunah give to the king.” Araunah said to the king, “May the LORD your God accept you.”
24The king said to Araunah, “No, but I will most certainly buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
25David built an altar to the LORD there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD was entreated for the land, and the plague was removed from Israel.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
2 Samuel 24:16YHWH stops the angel before Jerusalem’s destruction, making his mercy decisive at the place where David will offer sacrifice.
2 Samuel 24:10David’s confession marks the turn from insisting on the census to acknowledging guilt and asking YHWH for pardon.
2 Samuel 24:1The opening places David’s census within YHWH’s judgment against Israel, while leaving the cause of that anger unstated.
Where this chapter reaches

1 Chronicles recounts the same census, plague, and altar, identifying Satan as the one who incites David and adding details about the sacrifice. Numbers shares accounts of counting Israel and of deadly plagues halted through intercession or atonement.

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After reading the whole chapter

What stands out to you about David’s appeal to God’s mercy amid judgment?

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How does David’s plea for the people shape your understanding of responsibility in leadership?

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Questions people ask about 2 Samuel 24

Why was David’s census a sin?

The chapter records Joab’s objection and David’s confession, but it does not spell out what made this census sinful. The count focuses on men available for war, which may suggest reliance on military strength. Pride is a common interpretation, though David’s motive is not stated in the text.

Did God or Satan incite David to take the census?

Verse 1 says YHWH moved David against Israel in the context of divine anger. The parallel account in 1 Chronicles identifies Satan as the inciter. Together, the accounts present divine judgment and hostile agency in the same event, without explaining their exact relationship. David remains accountable for his action.

Why did the people die for David’s sin?

The opening says YHWH’s anger was already directed against Israel, but it does not name Israel’s offense. David himself raises the question of the people’s suffering and asks that judgment fall on his own household. The account holds national judgment and royal responsibility together without resolving every moral question.

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What the Bible says about guilt →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).