1-14 David Avenges the Gibeonites
- After a 3-year famine, David asks God about the famine.
- God replies it's because Saul had killed Gibeonites (a branch of the Amorites whom Israel had promised to spare), in an effort to whip them out .
- David summons the Gibeonites and asks what he can do for them.
- They don't want money -- they want 7 of Saul's descendants handed over to them for impalement.
- David complies, handing over 2 sons of Saul by his concubine Rizpah and 5 sons of Merab and Adriel, Saul's daughter and her husband.
- The Gibeonites impale them on the mountain "before the LORD" during the first days of barley harvest.
- Rizpah spreads sackcloth on a rock near the bodies and stays there to protect the bodies from the birds.
- Upon hearing of this, David takes their bones, as well as those of Saul and Jonathan (which the people of Jabesh-Gilead still have) and bury them in the tomb of Kish, Saul's father.
- "After that, God heeded supplications for the land."
Same as 1 Chronicles 20:4-8, with these exceptions:
- Verses 15-17 are not included in the Chronicles account
- David goes to war with his servants against Philistines, and grows very weary.
- Ishbibenob, descendant of the giants, threatens to kill David, and in defense of David, Abishai kills Ishbibenob.
- David's men entreat him not to go out to battle with them anymore, because his presence endangers them, "so you do not quench the lamp of Israel."
- Differences in 18-22:
- Saph, not Sippai
- Goliath the Gittite, not Lahmi the brother of Goliath
1-15 David's Song of Thanksgiving
Same as Psalm 18, with very minor differences. Brief outline:
- 1-4 God is my rock, fortress, deliverer
- 5-7 God as my deliverer
- 8-16 The power of God
- 17-20 My refuge, my deliverer
- 21-25 My rewarder
- 26-31 My light
- 32-43 My rock
- 44-46 My shield and sword
- 47-59 Bless and exalt God
- 50-51 My tower of salvation, my steadfast love
1-7 Last words of David
- Oracle of David, whom God exalted, anointed, favored
- One who rules justly is like the morning light.
- God has made an everlasting covenant with me and will make me prosper
- Not so with the godless
Same as 1 Chronicles 11:10-47, with the following differences:
- Samuel: Josheb-basshebeth, a Tahchemonites, wielded his spear against 800 whom he killed at one time. Chronicles: Jashobeam, son of Hachmoni, killed 300 at one time. Both mention that this man was "chief of the Three."
- In story of Eleazar, Samuel adds that the people returned to Eleazar after the victory -- but only to strip the dead.
- Samuel mentions Shammah's defense in a field of lentils; Chronicles says Eleazar was in a field of barley and doesn't mention Shammah here.
- List of those "among the Thirty" is longer in Chronicles - both include Uriah the Hittite. Samuel mentions him last.
1-9 David's Census of Israel and Judah
- God is angry with Israel and "incites" David to count people of Israel and Judah. (Chronicles: Satan stands up against Israel and "incites" David...)
- He orders Joab to take a census, and Joab questions him about it, but David insists. (Chr.: "Why should [the king] bring guilt on Israel? Again, Joab has David's best interests at heart, but David refuses to listen.)
- It takes 9 months, 20 days, and the result is 800,000 in Israel (Chr: 1,100,000) able to draw the sword, and 500,000 in Judah (Chr: 470,000). (Chr: Levi and Benjamin not counted, "for the king's command was abhorrent to Joab.") Differences in this numbers explained here.
- Afterward, David realizes he shouldn't have done this, and admits his sin to God, praying for God to take away his guilt.
- God sends word by Gad the prophet that David has 3 choices:
- Three years of famine
- Flee three months from enemies
- Three days' pestilence on the land. It's interesting that in other cases it appears David speaks with God directly, and God answers directly. In this case -- like the case with Nathan convicting David of his sin with Bathsheba -- God uses a prophet to communicate indirectly with David. Does this have to do with David's sin in each case?
- David's reply, let us fall into God's hands - not human hands.
- God sends a pestilence on the land, and 70,000 people die, from Dan to Beersheba.
- When God sees the angel of destruction about to strike Jerusalem, he tells him to stop.
- David sees this angel by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite (Chr: David sees him standing between earth and heaven about to strike Jerusalem) and prays (Chr: the elders are with him and they are all clothed in sackcloth) that the hand be against him and his father's house, not against the people, who have done nothing.
- God through Gad tells David to erect an altar on the threshing floor of Araunah (Chr: Ornan) the Jebusite. (Chr: Ornan had seen the angel, and while his sons hid themselves, he continued to thresh wheat until he saw David coming)
- David goes to Araunah and offers to buy the threshing floor, and Araunah offers its use to him, plus the oxen and their yokes for wood.
- David objects: "I will not offer burnt offerings...that cost me nothing." And he buys the threshing floor and oxen for 50 shekels of silver (Chr: 600 shekels of gold). See commentary for one explanation of this discrepancy.)
- David builds the altar and offers burnt offerings and offerings of well-being. (Chr adds that David called upon the LORD, and he answered him with fire from heaven on the altar.)
- And the plague is "averted" from Israel. (Chr: God commands the angel to stop, and "the angel put his sword back into its sheath.") Great word picture here.
- The tabernacle of Moses was in Giibeon at that time, but David was afraid of the angel's sword.
- So he chooses this place (which I'm assuming means the threshing floor of Ornan) as the site for the temple. (Apparently, according to a commentary, this was near the place where Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice - on Mount Moriah near Jerusalem)
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