Chapter 13.
THAT WHEN DAVID HAD NUMBERED THE PEOPLE, THEY WERE PUNISHED;
AND HOW THE DIVINE COMPASSION RESTRAINED THAT PUNISHMENT.FJAJ 7.78
1. NOW king David was desirous to know how many ten thousands there
were of the people, but forgot the commands of Moses, (23)
The words of God by Moses, Exodus 30:12, sufficiently satisfy the reason
here given by Josephus for the great plague mentioned in this chapter:
� "When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their
number, then shall they give a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when
thou numberest them; that there be no plague amongst them, when numberest
them." Nor indeed could David's or the neglect of executing this law
at this numeration of half a shekel apiece with them, when they came numbered.
The great reason why nations are so committed by and with their wicked
kings and governors that they almost constantly comply with them in their
of or disobedience to the Divine laws, and suffer Divine laws to go into
disuse or contempt, in order to kings and governors; and that they sub-political
laws and commands of those governors, instead of the righteous laws of
God, which all mankind ought ever to obey, let their kings and governors
say what they please to the contrary; this preference of human before Divine
laws seeming to me the principal character of idolatrous or antichristian
nations. Accordingly, Josephus well observes, Antiq. B. IV. ch. 8. sect.
17, that it was the duty of the people of Israel to take care that their
kings, when they should have them, did not exceed their proper limits of
power, and prove ungovernable by the laws of God, which would certainly
be a most pernicious thing to their Divine settlement. Nor do I think that
negligence peculiar to the Jews: those nations which are called Christians,
are sometimes indeed very solicitous to restrain their kings and governors
from breaking the human laws of their several kingdoms, but without the
like care for restraining them from breaking the laws of God. "Whether
it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto men more than to God, judge
ye," Acts 4:19. "We ought to obey God rather than men,"
ver. 29.
who told them beforehand, that if the multitude were numbered, they should
pay half a shekel to God for every head
Accordingly the king commanded
Joab, the captain of his host, to go and number the whole multitude; but
when he said there was no necessity for such a numeration, he was not persuaded
[to countermand it], but he enjoined him to make no delay, but to go about
the numbering of the Hebrews immediately
So Joab took with him the heads
of the tribes, and the scribes, and went over the country of the Israelites,
and took notice how numerous the multitude were, and returned to Jerusalem
to the king, after nine months and twenty days; and he gave in to the king
the number of the people, without the tribe of Benjamin, for he had not
yet numbered that tribe, no more than the tribe of Levi, for the king repented
of his having sinned against God
Now the number of the rest of the Israelites
was nine hundred thousand men, who were able to bear arms and go to war;
but the tribe of Judah, by itself, was four hundred thousand men.FJAJ 7.79
2. Now when the prophets had signified to David that God was angry at
him, he began to entreat him, and to desire he would be merciful to him,
and forgive his sin
But God sent Nathan the prophet to him, to propose
to him the election of three things, that he might choose which he liked
best: Whether he would have famine come upon the country for seven years,
or would have a war, and be subdued three months by his enemies? or, whether
God should send a pestilence and a distemper upon the Hebrews for three
days? But as he was fallen to a fatal choice of great miseries, he was
in trouble, and sorely confounded; and when the prophet had said that he
must of necessity make his choice, and had ordered him to answer quickly,
that he might declare what he had chosen to God, the king reasoned with
himself, that in case he should ask for famine, he would appear to do it
for others, and without danger to himself, since he had a great deal of
corn hoarded up, but to the harm of others; that in case he should choose
to be overcome [by his enemies] for three months, he would appear to have
chosen war, because he had valiant men about him, and strong holds, and
that therefore he feared nothing therefrom: so he chose that affliction
which is common to kings and to their subjects, and in which the fear was
equal on all sides; and said this beforehand, that it was much better to
fall into the hands of God, than into those of his enemies.FJAJ 7.80
3. When the prophet had heard this, he declared it to God; who thereupon
sent a pestilence and a mortality upon the Hebrews; nor did they die after
one and the same manner, nor so that it was easy to know what the distemper
was
Now the miserable disease was one indeed, but it carried them off
by ten thousand causes and occasions, which those that were afflicted could
not understand; for one died upon the neck of another, and the terrible
malady seized them before they were aware, and brought them to their end
suddenly, some giving up the ghost immediately with very great pains and
bitter grief, and some were worn away by their distempers, and had nothing
remaining to be buried, but as soon as ever they fell were entirely macerated;
some were choked, and greatly lamented their case, as being also stricken
with a sudden darkness; some there were who, as they were burying a relation,
fell down dead, without finishing the rites of the funeral
Now there perished
of this disease, which began with the morning, and lasted till the hour
of dinner, seventy thousand
Nay, the angel stretched out his hand over
Jerusalem, as sending this terrible judgment upon it
But David had put
on sackcloth, and lay upon the ground, entreating God, and begging that
the distemper might now cease, and that he would be satisfied with those
that had already perished
And when the king looked up into the air, and
saw the angel carried along thereby into Jerusalem, with his sword drawn,
he said to God, that he might justly be punished, who was their shepherd,
but that the sheep ought to be preserved, as not having sinned at all;
and he implored God that he would send his wrath upon him, and upon all
his family, but spare the people.FJAJ 7.81
4. When God heard his supplication, he caused the pestilence to cease,
and sent Gad the prophet to him, and commanded him to go up immediately
to the thrashing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite, and build an altar there
to God, and offer sacrifices
When David heard that, he did not neglect
his duty, but made haste to the place appointed him
Now Araunah was thrashing
wheat; and when he saw the king and all his servants coming to him, he
ran before, and came to him and worshipped him: he was by his lineage a
Jebusite, but a particular friend of David's; and for that cause it was
that, when he overthrew the city, he did him no harm, as we informed the
reader a little before
Now Araunah inquired, "Wherefore
is my lord come to his servant?" He answered, to buy of him the
thrashing-floor, that he might therein build an altar to God, and offer
a sacrifice
He replied, that he freely gave him both the thrashing-floor
and the ploughs and the oxen for a burnt-offering; and he besought God
graciously to accept his sacrifice
But the king made answer, that he took
his generosity and magnanimity loudly, and accepted his good-will, but
he desired him to take the price of them all, for that it was not just
to offer a sacrifice that cost nothing
And when Araunah said he would
do as he pleased, he bought the thrashing-floor of him for fifty shekels.
And when he had built an altar, he performed Divine service, and brought
a burnt-offering, and offered peace-offerings also
With these God was
pacified, and became gracious to them again
Now it happened that
Abraham (24)
What Josephus adds here is very remarkable, that this Mount Moriah was
not only the very place where Abraham offered up Isaac long ago, but that
God had foretold to David by a prophet, that here his son should build
him a temple, which is not directly in any of our other copies, though
very agreeable to what is in them, particularly in 1 Chronicles 21:25,
28; 22:1, to which places I refer the reader.came
and offered his son Isaac for a burnt-offering at that very place; and
when the youth was ready to have his throat cut, a ram appeared on a sudden,
standing by the altar, which Abraham sacrificed in the stead of his son,
as we have before related
Now when king David saw that God had heard his
prayer, and had graciously accepted of his sacrifice, he resolved
to call that entire place The Altar of all the People, and to build
a temple to God there; which words he uttered very appositely to what was
to be done afterward; for God sent the prophet to him, and told him that
there should his son build him an altar, that son who was to take the kingdom
after him.FJAJ 7.82