(23) But David took (Numbers 3:40, n?s?'mispar) not the number of them.--This and the next verse contain concluding remarks on the two lists communicated in 1 Chronicles 27:1-22. The heading of the chapter professes that the "sons of Israel, according to their number," is the subject in hand. This appended note limits that statement to those who were above "twenty years old," that is, to those who were of the military age. The reference is undoubtedly to the census, of which 1 Chronicles 21 gave the account; and it is evident that one of the main objects of that census was the military and political organisation here so scantily and obscurely described.
Because the Lord had said he would increase Israel like to the stars of the heavens.--The reason why David restricted the census to those who were capable of bearing arms (see Genesis 15:5; Genesis 22:17). The idea implied seems to be that to attempt to number Israel would be to evince a distrust of Jehovah's faithfulness; and, perhaps, that such an attempt could not possibly succeed.
Verse 23. - The contents of this and the following verse may be supposed to be suggested by the distinct reference to the matter of number in the first verse of the chapter, and in the latter halves of the following fourteen verses, contrasting with the utter absence of any allusion to the same matter, when the whole body of the tribes and their princes are the subject, in vers. 16-22. The deeper significance of the latter part of this verse probably comes to this; that God had already given his people the proudest name for their numbers, in saying that they should be numberless, like to the stars of the heavens, and perpetually on the increase.
27:16-34 The officers of the court, or the rulers of the king's substance, had the oversight and charge of the king's tillage, his vineyards, his herds, his flocks, which formed the wealth of eastern kings. Much of the wisdom of princes is seen in the choice of their ministry, and common persons show it in the choice of their advisers. David, though he had all these about him, preferred the word of God before them all. Thy testimonies are my delight and my counsellors.
But David took not the number of them from twenty years old and under,.... Only those that were twenty years and upwards; but, according to Cornelius Bertram (k), he numbered them that were under twenty, though but sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, or nineteen years of age, provided they were of robust bodies, and of a tall stature, and able to bear arms; which he takes to be the sin of David, in numbering the people, being contrary to the law of God; yet though he had ordered them to be numbered, and they were, yet he would not take them and put them into the account of his chronicles, as in the next verse, that his sin might not be known, see 2 Samuel 24:9.
because the Lord had said, he would increase Israel like to the stars in the heavens; which are not to be numbered, and therefore David sinned in attempting to number the people.
Because the Lord had said he would increase Israel like to the stars of the heavens.--The reason why David restricted the census to those who were capable of bearing arms (see Genesis 15:5; Genesis 22:17). The idea implied seems to be that to attempt to number Israel would be to evince a distrust of Jehovah's faithfulness; and, perhaps, that such an attempt could not possibly succeed.
because the Lord had said, he would increase Israel like to the stars in the heavens; which are not to be numbered, and therefore David sinned in attempting to number the people.
(k) Lucubrat. Franktall, c. 2.