In I Chronicles 21, why was it a sin for David to take a census?<\/p>\n\t
“When you take a census of the sons of Israel to number them, then each one of them shall give a ransom for himself to the LORD, when you number them, so that there will be no plague among them when you number them. This is what everyone who is numbered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as a contribution to the LORD. Everyone who is numbered, from twenty years old and over, shall give the contribution to the LORD. The rich shall not pay more and the poor shall not pay less than the half shekel, when you give the contribution to the LORD to make atonement for yourselves. You shall take the atonement money from the sons of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may be a memorial for the sons of Israel before the LORD, to make atonement for yourselves<\/em>” (Exodus 30:12-16).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
There are a few problems with the census that David proposed. First, it appears he did this numbering without charging the half-shekel that was required by the Law. A second problem is that David just wanted to know the number. It wasn’t commanded by God nor was it driven by a need. Perhaps David didn’t want to charge half a day’s wage just to satisfy his curiosity. But the fee was to remind the entire country that they belonged to God because He rescued them from Egypt. Ultimately the fee limited the number of censuses so that people would rely on God and not on themselves. David’s census in the long run shows either a desire for pride in his nation or for making plans for war without God’s direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: In I Chronicles 21, why was it a sin for David to take a census? Answer: “When you take a census of the sons of Israel to number them, then each one of them shall give a ransom for himself to the LORD, when you number them, so that there will be no plague…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[111,1063,702],"class_list":["post-23515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-david","tag-i-chronicles","tag-ii-samuel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":30945,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-was-david-wrong-in-numbering-israel\/","url_meta":{"origin":23515,"position":0},"title":"Why was David wrong in numbering Israel?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In II Samuel 24:1-2, it was written that David commanded Joab to take a census of Israel. After the census was taken, in II Samuel 24:10, David knew that he had sinned and God sends a pestilence upon Israel as a consequence. Why did God consider David commanding a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28268,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-much-did-a-shekel-weigh\/","url_meta":{"origin":23515,"position":1},"title":"How much did a shekel weigh?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello sir, I used your\u00a0commentary on Genesis 24,\u00a0A Wife for Isaac.\u00a0 In the fifth paragraph, you state that the nose ring that was given to Rebekah weighed 6 ounces and the two bracelets weighed 120 ounces.\u00a0 Could you tell me where you received this information?\u00a0 As I shared that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50579,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-the-redemption-laws-only-apply-to-firstborn-sons\/","url_meta":{"origin":23515,"position":2},"title":"Do the redemption laws only apply to firstborn sons?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In your article on\u00a0Jephthah's vow, you used the verses Exodus 13:2, 12-15 that all firstborn children belong to God, and as such Jephthah couldn't redeem her. But I've heard commentaries saying that these verses only talked about males. Is there something I'm missing in this? Thanks in advance and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":81000,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-exodus-2228-29-talking-about-child-sacrifice\/","url_meta":{"origin":23515,"position":3},"title":"Is Exodus 22:29 talking about child sacrifice?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 5, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Exodus 22:29, is God allowing child sacrifice? I'm sure that's not what's present here, and I'm taking it as them becoming a part of the priesthood. If correct, are there other verses that can cover this idea? Answer: Human communication relies heavily on implications. We don't say everything.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36231,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-were-the-levites-numbered-from-30-to-50-in-numbers-4-and-25-to-50-in-numbers-8\/","url_meta":{"origin":23515,"position":4},"title":"Why were the Levites numbered from 30 to 50 in Numbers 4 and 25 to 50 in Numbers 8?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Could anyone help me with this question? In Numbers 8:24-25, the age limit of the Levites that \"wait upon the service\" was 25-50; then why in Numbers 4, only those between age 30 to 50 were numbered?\" Answer: \"Take a census of the sons of Kohath from among the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69837,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-idea-of-redemption-confuses-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":23515,"position":5},"title":"The idea of redemption confuses me","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 17, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi there, I'm reading through the Bible for the first time. I'm up to Numbers 18 and was confused by verses 14-16. For reference (I'm using an NIV, but I might switch to ESV sometime): \"Everything in Israel that is devoted to the Lord is yours. The first offspring\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23515\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}