2 Samuel — Chapter 24

And the anger of the Lord was again kindled against Israel, and he stirred up David among them, saying: Go, number Israel and Juda. Lapide: God did not directly incite David — He permitted Satan to do so (1 Par. 21:1: \"Satan rose up against Israel and moved David to number Israel\"). The attribution to God denotes a just permissive will used for the punishment of the people's sins.

And David's heart struck him, after the people were numbered; and David said to the Lord: I have sinned very much in what I have done; but I pray thee, O Lord, to take away the iniquity of thy servant, because I have done very foolishly. Lapide: David's sin was pride — glorying in the multitude of his subjects. The census was not wrong per se (the Romans took censuses lawfully), but David did it from vanity and arrogance. S. Augustine: \"God diminished by the death of many the number in which the king had gloried.\"

And David said to Gad: I am in a great strait; but it is better that I should fall into the hands of the Lord (for his mercies are many) than into the hands of men. Lapide: David chose the plague over famine and war because the plague is directly from God, whose mercy is greater than man's; and Chrysostom praises him as a good shepherd who hoped that the plague would take him before others, and so \"placed his soul for his sheep.\"

And when the angel stretched out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord had pity on the affliction, and said to the angel that slew the people: It is enough. Lapide notes this is the same pattern as with Sodom (Gen. 19) and Sennacherib — a good angel (not evil) inflicted the plague by divine command; his sword was seen drawn by David. The plague ceased miraculously at Mount Moriah.

And David said to the Lord, when he saw the angel striking the people: It is I that have sinned; I have done wickedly. These that are the sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I beseech thee, be turned against me and against my father's house. Lapide: \"How admirable! He who was unworthy of absolution was judged worthy of sacrifice by this act\" (S. Ambrose). David as the good shepherd offering himself for his flock — a type of Christ the Good Shepherd.

And Gad came to David that day, and said to him: Go up, and build an altar to the Lord in the thrashing floor of Areuna the Jebusite. Mount Moriah — the same place Abraham offered Isaac (Gen. 22). Lapide: God chose this place to indicate where Solomon would build the Temple; and allegorically, the altar built here by David as expiation of his sin is a type of the Altar of the Cross on Calvary, where Christ by His sacrifice atoned for the sins of all mankind.

And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered holocausts and peace offerings; and the Lord became merciful to the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel. Lapide: fire came down from heaven to consume David's sacrifice (1 Par. 21:26) — a sign of divine acceptance. God indicated thereby that He willed the Temple to be built on this spot; and David proclaimed to all the people: \"This is the house of the Lord God, and this the altar for the burnt offering of Israel\" (1 Par. 22:1).