Satan rose up against Israel and caused David to take a census of the people of Israel.
Parallel translations
- WEB Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to take a census of Israel.
- KJV And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
- BSB Then Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.
- NKJV Now Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.
- NASB Then Satan stood up against Israel and incited David to count Israel.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Satan incites David to take a census of Israel. It introduces the great sin and its disastrous consequences.
Overview
Chronicles names Satan as the one who moved David to number Israel, while the parallel in 2 Samuel 24 speaks of the Lord's anger prompting it; faithful readers harmonize these by seeing Satan as the instrument within God's sovereign permission, as in Job 1-2. The census appears to express trust in numbers and military might rather than in the Lord. The episode exposes the sin even of a godly king and prepares for the place where atonement and the temple will arise.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- 2 Sam 24:1–25Again Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, “Go, count Israel and Judah.”
- Zech 3:1He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before Yahweh’s angel, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary.
- Rev 12:10I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, the power, and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ has come; for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night.
- Job 2:1Again, on the day when the God’s sons came to present themselves before Yahweh, Satan came also among them to present himself before Yahweh.
- Job 2:4–6Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “Skin for skin. Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.
- 1 Kgs 22:20–22Yahweh said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ One said one thing; and another said another.
- Acts 5:3But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back part of the price of the land?
- John 13:2During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him,
- Luke 11:53As he said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be terribly angry, and to draw many things out of him;
- Job 1:6–12Now on the day when God’s sons came to present themselves before Yahweh, Satan also came among them.
- Luke 22:31The Lord said, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat,
- Matt 4:3The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
- Heb 10:24Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good works,
- Jas 1:13Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.
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Christ at the center
The genealogies and the everlasting covenant with David trace the single thread of promise running through the generations straight to the Christ in whom the line reaches its goal.
How 1 Chronicles 21:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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