Commentaria in II Regum (II Samuelis)
2. NUMBER YE THE PEOPLE, THAT I MAY KNOW THE NUMBER OF THEM.—Scripture, in the preceding chapter 23, had recounted the valiant men and heroes of David; now David himself orders the rest of the people subject to him to be numbered, that he may know how many and how great subjects he has, and how many of them are fit to be enrolled as soldiers, and thence know his strength, how many soldiers, namely, he can lead into the field. He sinned, however, because he did it from vanity and pride. Hear St. Augustine, book 22 Against Faustus, chapter 66: “Such was the pastoral love for the flock committed to him that he was willing to die for them, when, the people being numbered, God was pleased so to punish the sin of his elation as to diminish the same number by the death of many, by whose multitude the king’s heart had been tempted with pride. In which hidden judgment God, with whom there is no iniquity, took away from this life those whom he knew unworthy of it; and in him who had exalted himself on the abundance of men, he healed the swelling of the human mind by the diminishing of that abundance.” David’s sin, therefore, was pride. Another sin is assigned by Josephus, Cajetan and Abulensis, namely that in this numbering and census the law of Exodus 30:13 was neglected, which commands that in a census each pay half a sicle. But no mention of this neglect is made here. Add that, even if David had ordered the half-sicle prescribed by the law to be paid, and the people had paid it, David would still have sinned, compelling by his numbering the people to pay this half-sicle without cause; it would have been otherwise had David had a just cause of numbering the people: for instance if, wishing to set out for war, and to know the number of those who could serve or bear arms, he had taken a census of the people; or if a tribute had to be imposed on the whole people for a public cause, for then he would not have sinned.
In like manner the Romans made the lustrum, and the census of all provinces, and numbered and registered the individual heads of men, both to know how populous the provinces were, and how many soldiers they could give; and to exact a tax from them, as Augustus did, in full peace of the world ordering the whole world subject to him to be registered, and imposing a tax upon it, in which registration and census Christ was born, who, as St. Gregory says, numbers and registers his faithful in blessed eternity, Luke chapter 2, verse 4.
9. AND THERE WERE FOUND OF ISRAEL EIGHT HUNDRED (wrongly Josephus has “nine hundred”) THOUSAND VALIANT MEN.—Boys and women, therefore, were not numbered. You will say: 1 Paralipomenon 21:5 says: “The whole number of Israel was eleven hundred thousand men.” Therefore there were three hundred thousand more. The Hebrews in St. Jerome answer that here only the living are recounted: but in Paralipomenon both the living and the dead, namely those who died struck by God with the plague, whence they gather that the number of those dead of the plague was three hundred thousand; but Scripture is against this, which here in verse 15 numbers only 70 thousand.
Secondly, others answer that here the tribes of Benjamin and Levi are not numbered; in Paralipomenon they are numbered; and therefore three hundred thousand more are reckoned. But in the book of Paralipomenon, after the number of eleven hundred thousand, it is at once added that the Levites and Benjamites were not numbered. Therefore they are numbered neither here nor in Paralipomenon.
I say therefore that there was here a twofold registration, or census, of Israel: the first was that in which the captains of the army in the several towns and villages wrote down the names of individuals in private books, and according to this registration eleven hundred thousand of the people were numbered, as the book of Paralipomenon has it; the latter was that in which from these private catalogues or books the names of individuals were transcribed into the larger book which Joab had, to deliver it to the king, and so be entered in the public records and annals, and the number of these was only eight hundred thousand, as is said here. The cause was partly that Joab carried out this registration unwillingly, and therefore spun out delays in transcribing it for the king, to soothe the king’s pride: partly that, the plague sent by God raging, this transcription was forbidden and cut short, wherefore the three hundred thousand just mentioned are omitted in it. This is clear from 1 Paralipomenon 27:24: “Joab,” it says, “had begun to number, and did not finish (whence he numbered neither Benjamin nor Levi), because upon this wrath (the plague) had fallen upon Israel, and therefore the number of those who had been reckoned was not entered in the records of King David.” But the writer of Paralipomenon added and supplied those three hundred thousand from the private catalogues.
AND OF JUDA FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND FIGHTING MEN,—who, namely, were fit to bear arms and fight, as went before, even if they were not actually soldiers and fighters. You will say: 1 Paralipomenon 21:5, only 470 thousand from Juda are numbered. Abulensis answers that there are not numbered there those who from Juda were enrolled in the household and army of David, because David already had them with him in number: these were thirty thousand, which joined with the 470 thousand make five hundred thousand. So Abulensis and Lyranus. Others answer otherwise, namely first the Hebrews in St. Jerome, and from them Angelomus, say that Joab was unwilling to deliver to David the whole sum, which was 500 thousand, lest he should be proud of so numerous a tribe of Juda; whence he deducted from them thirty thousand.
Secondly, others assert that these thirty thousand were proselytes, that is, Gentiles converted to Judaism, who had attached themselves to the tribe of Juda, and therefore are not numbered here.
Thirdly, Serarius answers that here only the more select are numbered and that they were 470 thousand: in Paralipomenon, all without exception, and that they were 500 thousand.
Fourthly, Salianus: The tribe of Juda, he says, is here reckoned according to its ancient boundaries; within which the tribes of Dan and Simeon were received as into the bosom of Juda; and this is confirmed by the fact that Joab with his companions is said to have come to the south of Juda, to Bersabee, though it is certain that this town was in the tribe of Simeon, not Juda.
10. BUT DAVID’S HEART STRUCK HIM,—as if to say: David’s conscience bit him, and told him that he had done ill in numbering the people from pride and presumption. Josephus adds that “Gad” the prophet and others showed David that he had sinned in this numbering, and moved this scruple of conscience in him.
TO TAKE AWAY THE INIQUITY,—that is, that thou mayest remove, remit and pardon it.
12. THE CHOICE OF THREE THINGS IS GIVEN THEE.—“Of three,” namely of slaughters and calamities, plague, famine and war; for whichever of these three thou choosest, it will take away and cut down this immense number of Israel, in which thou as king takest pride and glory, and so will lay low thy pride. So St. Augustine, book 22 Against Faustus, chapter 66.
13. EITHER SEVEN YEARS OF FAMINE SHALL COME TO THEE.—For “seven,” 1 Paralipomenon 21:12, “three” is said, because the first proposal of God and of the prophet Gad contained “seven”: but this God afterwards, at the asking of Gad or David, mitigated and reduced to three years, as he diminished the number of 50 just men in Sodom, on the prayers of Abraham, and reduced it to ten, Genesis 18. Whence Josephus, Origen, Theodoret and others assert that only three years of famine were proposed to David.
14. IT IS BETTER THAT I FALL INTO THE HANDS OF THE LORD (FOR HIS MERCIES ARE MANY) THAN INTO THE HANDS OF MEN.—He deprecates, therefore, the war of men, namely of the Philistines, Syrians and Ammonites; as for the rest, David resigns himself to God, to inflict either famine or plague. But Gad the prophet urging that he choose definitely one of these, he chose the plague, for the Septuagint add, and David chose for himself death, that is, the plague which we commonly call death, or mortality. Josephus relates the same, and assigns another cause of David’s choice, whom hear: “The king thinking that if he chose famine he might seem to have regarded himself rather than others, since there would be no danger to himself, having much corn in his granaries, while others had not; and if he had chosen to be conquered by an enemy for three months, he would so also have provided for himself, who had citadels and a very strong cohort about him: he chose an evil common to rulers and ruled alike, in which equal fear threatened all, saying beforehand that it was better to fall into the hands of God than into the hands of men.” So also Theodoret, Abulensis and Cajetan. David, then, choosing to fall into the hands of God, seems to have chosen the plague: for this is the plague by which the hand of God strikes men, say Lyranus and Vatablus; for famine often arises not immediately from God, but from the plundering of enemies, or drought of the earth, or the intemperateness of the air.