21:5 And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all [they of] Israel were {d} a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah [was] {e} four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.
(d) Joab partly for grief and partly through negligence gathered not the whole sum as it is here declared.
(e) In Samuel 30,000 more are mentioned, which was either by joining to them some of the Benjamites who were mixed with Judah, or as the Hebrews write, here the chief and princes are left out.
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.
