(17) And David said unto God.--Sam., "Jehovah." Samuel adds, "when he saw the angel that smote the people" (see our 1Chronicles 21:16); "and he said."

Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered?--Literally, to number the people. In Samuel these words are wanting. They may have been added by the chronicler for the sake of clearness. "though they may also have formed part of the original narrative.

Even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed.--Samuel reads, "Lo, I" (different pronoun) "have sinned, and I have dealt crookedly." Our text here may be paraphrastic, but hardly a corruption of the older one.

But as for these sheep, what . . . father's house.--Verbatim as in Samuel, save that the appeal, "O Lord my God," is wanting there. (Literally, But these, the sheep. The king was the shepherd.)

But not on thy people, that they should be plagued.--Literally, and on thy people, not for a plague. The strangeness of this order makes it likely that these words comprise two marginal notes, or glosses, which have crept into the text. They are not read in Samuel.

21:1-30 David's numbering the people. - No mention is made in this book of David's sin in the matter of Uriah, neither of the troubles that followed it: they had no needful connexion with the subjects here noted. But David's sin, in numbering the people, is related: in the atonement made for that sin, there was notice of the place on which the temple should be built. The command to David to build an altar, was a blessed token of reconciliation. God testified his acceptance of David's offerings on this altar. Thus Christ was made sin, and a curse for us; it pleased the Lord to bruise him, that through him, God might be to us, not a consuming Fire, but a reconciled God. It is good to continue attendance on those ordinances in which we have experienced the tokens of God's presence, and have found that he is with us of a truth. Here God graciously met me, therefore I will still expect to meet him.See Chapter Introduction