1 Chronicles 21:1
New International Version
Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.

New Living Translation
Satan rose up against Israel and caused David to take a census of the people of Israel.

English Standard Version
Then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel.

Berean Standard Bible
Then Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.

King James Bible
And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.

New King James Version
Now Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.

New American Standard Bible
Then Satan stood up against Israel and incited David to count Israel.

NASB 1995
Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel.

NASB 1977
Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel.

Legacy Standard Bible
Then Satan stood up against Israel and incited David to number Israel.

Amplified Bible
Satan [the adversary] stood up against Israel and incited David to count [the population of] Israel.

Christian Standard Bible
Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to count the people of Israel.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Satan stood up against Israel and incited David to count the people of Israel.

American Standard Version
And Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And Satan stood up against Israel and he urged David to number Israel.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And the devil stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.

Contemporary English Version
Satan decided to cause trouble for Israel by making David think it was a good idea to find out how many people there were in Israel and Judah.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And Satan rose up against Israel: and moved David to number Israel.

English Revised Version
And Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Satan attempted to attack Israel by provoking David to count the Israelites.

Good News Translation
Satan wanted to bring trouble on the people of Israel, so he made David decide to take a census.

International Standard Version
Then Satan attacked Israel by inciting David to enumerate a census of Israel.

JPS Tanakh 1917
And Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.

Literal Standard Version
Then Satan stands up against Israel, and persuades David to number Israel,

Majority Standard Bible
Then Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.

New American Bible
A satan rose up against Israel, and he incited David to take a census of Israel.

NET Bible
An adversary opposed Israel, inciting David to count how many warriors Israel had.

New Revised Standard Version
Satan stood up against Israel, and incited David to count the people of Israel.

New Heart English Bible
And an adversary stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.

Webster's Bible Translation
And Satan stood up against Israel, and incited David to number Israel.

World English Bible
Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to take a census of Israel.

Young's Literal Translation
And there standeth up an adversary against Israel, and persuadeth David to number Israel,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
David's Military Census
1Then Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. 2So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan and bring me a report, so that I may know their number.”…

Cross References
2 Samuel 24:1
Again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He stirred up David against them, saying, "Go and take a census of Israel and Judah."

1 Chronicles 20:8
So these descendants of Rapha in Gath fell at the hands of David and his servants.

1 Chronicles 27:24
Joab son of Zeruiah began to count the men but did not finish. For because of this census wrath came upon Israel, and the number was not entered in the Book of the Chronicles of King David.

Zechariah 3:1
Then the angel showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, with Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.


Treasury of Scripture

And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.

A.

2 Samuel 24:1
And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.

1 Kings 22:20-22
And the LORD said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner…

Job 1:6-12
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them…

provoked David

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Adversary Census David David's Designing Evil Impulse Incited Israel Mind Moved Persuadeth Provoked Rose Satan Standeth Stood
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Adversary Census David David's Designing Evil Impulse Incited Israel Mind Moved Persuadeth Provoked Rose Satan Standeth Stood
1 Chronicles 21
1. David, tempted by Satan, forces Joab to number the people
5. The number of the people being brought, David repents of it
9. David having three plagues proposed by God, chooses the pestilence
14. After the death of 70,000, David by repentance prevents the destruction of Jerusalem
18. David, by Gad's direction, purchases Ornan's threshing floor;
26. where having built an altar, God gives a sign of his favor by fire.
28. David sacrifices there, being restrained from Gibeon by fear of the angel














(1-6) The Census.

(1) And Satan stood up against Israel.--Perhaps, And an adversary (hostile influence) arose against Israel. So in 2Samuel 19:23 the sons of Zeruiah are called "adversaries" (Heb., a Satan) to David. (Comp. 1Kings 11:14; 1Kings 11:25.) When the adversary, the enemy of mankind, is meant, the word takes the article, which it has not here. (Comp. Job 1, 2 and Zechariah 3:1-2.)

And provoked David.--Pricked him on, incited him. 2 Samuel 24 begins: "And again the anger of Jehovah burned against Israel, and He (or it) incited David against them, saying, Go, number Israel and Judah." It thus appears that the adversary of our text, the influence hostile to Israel, was the wrath of God. The wrath of God is the Scriptural name for that aspect of the Divine nature under which it pursues to destruction whatever is really opposed to its own perfection (Delitzsch); and it is only sin, i.e., breach of the Divine law, which can necessarily direct that aspect towards man. If Divine wrath urged David to number Israel, it can only have been in consequence of evil thoughts of pride and self-sufficiency, which had intruded into a heart hitherto humbly reliant upon its Maker. One evil thought led to another, quite naturally; i.e., by the laws which God has imposed upon human nature. God did not interpose, but allowed David's corrupt motive to work out its own penal results. (Comp. Romans 1:18; Romans 1:24; Romans 1:26; Romans 1:28.) The true reading in Samuel may well be, "And an adversary incited David," &c., the word Satan having fallen out of the text. Yet the expression "Jehovah provoked or incited against . . ." occurs (1Samuel 26:19). . . .

Verse 1. - Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel. This remarkable sentence takes the place of the statements in the parallel, "And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah." Our own passage seems to confine the temptation and sin to David. David also seems to be spoken of as the object of malignant attack on the part of Satan, though Israel is spoken of as the object of malignant envy and animosity. It is also to be noticed that in ver. 17 David takes all the blame to himself, and speaks of the people as "innocent sheep." A people and whole nation have, indeed, often suffered the smart of one ruler's sin. Yet here the light thrown upon the whole event by the account in the Book of Samuel must be accepted as revealing the fact that there had been previously something amiss on the part of the people - perhaps something of illest significance lurking in their constitution. This alone could "kindle the anger of the Lord against Israel." It is the opposite of this which kindles the anger of Satan - when he witnesses excellence, surpassing excellence, as when he witnesses "the weakest saint," yet in that strongest position," on his knees." The apparent inconsistency in Satan being spoken of as resisting Israel, and the anger of the Lord being spoken of as kindled against Israel, is but apparent and superficial. In the first place, these histories do only purport to state the facts overt. And in this sense either alternative statement gives the prima facie facts. Either is true, and both may be true in different chronological order. And further, that the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel is no disproof that Satan will see and seize his opportunity. It looks the contrary way. There was a time and an occasion in Eden when Satan thought he saw an opportunity, tried it, and found it, when the anger of the Lord was not kindled against Adam and Eve for certain. But much more prompt will be the executive of Satan at another and less doubtful time. The paths in written history are often awhile rugged and broken up; the written history of Scripture is no exception. And in thus being the more in analogy with history itself, those unevennesses and breaks are the better attestation of both the reality of the Scripture history and the veracity of its writers. The word (שָׂטַן) occurs twenty-four times in the Old Testament. On all occasions of its occurrence in the Book of Job and in the prophecies of Zechariah, it shows the prefixed definite article; in all other places it is, with the present passage, unaccompanied by the article. Its translation here might appear strictly as that of a proper name. But this cannot be said of the other instances of its use, when without the article (Numbers 22:22, 32; 1 Samuel 29:4). This constitutes with some the ground of the very opposite opinion and opposite translation. If we regard the name as utterly expressing the personality of Satan, the passage is very noteworthy, and will be most safely regarded as the language of the compiler, and not as copied from the original source. The signification of the word "Satan," as is well known, is "adversary," or "accuser." The sin of David in giving the order of this verse was of a technical and ceremonial character, in the first place, whatever his motives were, and however intensified by other causes of a moral and more individual complexion. We learn (Exodus 30:12-16) the special enactments respecting what was to be observed when "the sum of the children of Israel after their number" was to be taken. However, the same passage does not say, it fails to say, when such a numbering would be legitimate or when not. It is left us, therefore, to deduce this from observation. And we notice, in the first place, that, on the occasion of its undoubted rightness, it is the work of the distinct commandment of God (Numbers 1:1-3; Numbers 26:1-4). Next, we notice the religious contribution, "the ransom," that was required with it (Exodus 30:12-16; Exodus 38:25, 26; Numbers 31:48-54). Again, we notice that the numberings narrated both in the beginning of the Book of Numbers (1.) and toward the close (26.) had specific moral objects as assigned by God - among them the forcible teaching of the loss entailed by the successive rebellions of the people (Numbers 26:64, 65; Deuteronomy 2:14, 15). And though last, not least, all these indications are lighted up by the express and emphatic announcements in God's original promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that their seed should become past numbering, multitudinous as the stars, and as the sands of the seashore. From all which we may conclude that only that numbering was held legitimate which was for God's service in some form, and as against human pride and boastfulness - by God's command as against a human king's fancy - and which was attended by the payment of that solemn "ransom" money, the bekah, or half-shekel (Exodus 30:12). Other numbering had snares about it, and it was no doubt because it had such intrinsically that it was divinely discountenanced, and in this case severely punished. It seems gratuitous with some to tax David with having other motives than those of some sort of vanity now at work, sinister designs of preparing, unaided and unpermitted, some fresh military exploits, or stealing a march on the nation itself in the matter of some new system of taxation. The context offers no corroboration of either of these notions, while several lesser indications point to the simplest explanation (1 Chronicles 27:23).

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Then Satan
שָׂטָ֖ן (śā·ṭān)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 7854: An opponent -- Satan, the arch-enemy of good

rose up
וַיַּֽעֲמֹ֥ד (way·ya·‘ă·mōḏ)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 5975: To stand, in various relations

against
עַל־ (‘al-)
Preposition
Strong's 5921: Above, over, upon, against

Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל (yiś·rā·’êl)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3478: Israel -- 'God strives', another name of Jacob and his desc

and incited
וַיָּ֙סֶת֙ (way·yā·seṯ)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 5496: To prick, stimulate, to seduce

David
דָּוִ֔יד (dā·wîḏ)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 1732: David -- perhaps 'beloved one', a son of Jesse

to take a census
לִמְנ֖וֹת (lim·nō·wṯ)
Preposition-l | Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct
Strong's 4487: To weigh out, to allot, constitute officially, to enumerate, enroll

of Israel.
יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ (yiś·rā·’êl)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3478: Israel -- 'God strives', another name of Jacob and his desc


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OT History: 1 Chronicles 21:1 Satan stood up against Israel and moved (1 Chron. 1Ch iCh i Ch 1 chr 1chr)
1 Chronicles 20:8
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