2 Samuel 24


2 Samuel 24 is the twenty-fourth chapter of the Second Book of Samuel in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible or the second part of Books of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the prophet Samuel, with additions by the prophets Gad and Nathan, but modern scholars view it as a composition of a number of independent texts of various ages from c. 630–540 BCE. This chapter contains the account of David's reign in Jerusalem. This is within a section comprising 2 Samuel 21–24 containing the appendices to the Books of Samuel.

Text

This chapter was originally written in the Hebrew language. It is divided into 25 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis, Aleppo Codex, and Codex Leningradensis. Fragments containing parts of this chapter in Hebrew were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls including 4Q51 with extant verses 16–22.
Extant ancient manuscripts of a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint include Codex Vaticanus and Codex Alexandrinus.

Old Testament references

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Analysis

The miscellaneous collection of narratives, lists, and poems in 2 Samuel 21–24 are appendices to the Books of Samuel, arranged not chronologically, but carefully crafted into a concentric three-tiered structure as follows:
These chapters center on two poems: the Psalm of David in 22:2–51, a review of the mighty acts of God, and the oracle in 23:1–7, an assurance that the Davidic dynasty was to endure, with the focal point of the incipit to David's second poem : "These are the last words of David" as a notice that the 'David Narrative' is drawing to a close. Directly framing the central poems are the warrior exploits in 21:15–22 and again in 23:8–39 and bracketing in the outer circle are a famine story and a plague story, both were caused by divine anger in response to a transgression by a king. The episode related to the Gibeonites in 21:1–14 links to the relationship between David and the house of Saul in the preceding chapter. The final section containing the plague story in 2 Samuel 24 links to the building of Solomon's temple, so appropriately placed right before 1 Kings. After these episodes the next story is King Solomon's succession, so then King David can die.
This chapter has the following structure:
The center of this chapter is David's choice of his punishment as he left it to God's mercy. This is bracketed by the punishment choices and the punishment exacted. The C/C' sections contain David's double confession. David's order and Joab's obedience parallels Gad's order and David's obedience. The inclusion is God's anger that raged at the beginning and was appeased at the end.

David’s military census (24:1–9)

Verse 1 suggests that David's census was incited so that God could punish Israel for a sin committed previously—from a theological perspective, whereas the Chronicler states that it was Satan who incited David to count the people from a human perspective. Joab possibly sensed the danger of moving from 'a charismatic levy to a human organization' as there was a 'religious taboo' on counting people. The reference to those 'able to draw the sword' indicates an enrollment for military service, which may neglect rules of purity.

Verse 1

  • "Number": "take a census of"

Judgment for David’s sin (24:10–17)

After David realized that he sinned against God, he was given choice through the prophet Gad between three possible punishments, varying in length of time from three years to three days, but on a reverse scale of intensity. David left the choice to God's mercy, which came down to pestillence.

David built an altar (24:18–25)

This last section contains David's purchase of Araunah's threshing-floor which is an aetiological narrative explaining what would become the site of Solomon's temple. Traditionally a threshing-floor could be a site of theophany and a place for receiving divine messages as extrabiblically also the case at Ugarit, but the text does not claim that Araunah's threshing-floor was originally a Jebusite sanctuary. It was the appearance of an angel and the erection of an altar that made it a sanctuary.
David's conversation with Araunah for purchasing the place recalls Abraham's conversation with the Hittites for the purchase of the cave of Machpelah. In both cases the offer of a gift was rejected and a formal purchase was made. David's response to God's words led to the erection of an altar offering pleasing sacrifice to God, which averted the plague.
The accounts in this chapter at the end of the Books of Samuel, ending with the erection of a holocaust altar on Araunah's threshing-floor, was to be continued in the next book with the accounts of the building of Solomon's temple.

Verse 24

  • "Fifty shekels of silver": this was to purchase for the thresing-floor, oxen and wood instruments only, whereas the large sum "six hundred shekels of gold by weight" was paid later for the whole hill, on which David prepared for the temple to be built by Solomon.

General

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