The subject of the present section (David’s numbering of the people and the plague which followed) is interesting in itself, quite apart from the comparison with Samuel Why was the census considered a sin? Various replies may be made. (1) Because the pride of David and the ambitions which the census might promote revealed a transference of trust from God to self, from spirit to numbers, from justice to power. This view accords with our modern moralistic standpoint, but other considerations call for mention. (2) Because, unlike the two numberings in the wilderness (Numbers i. 1‒16, iii. 39, xxvi. 1‒65), it was not made by Divine command (compare verse 1, note). This thought may well have been present in the mind of the Chronicler. To it we may add (3) the popular dread of the census as a sinister and unlucky act. The ground of this dread was no doubt mainly practical, being due to the fear that the records might be used for purposes of fresh taxation or more stringent war-levies, but it may have its roots in an instinct, handed down from the thoughts of primitive ages, when written records were an uncanny mystery. Thus S. I. Curtiss, _Primitive Semitic Religion To-day_, p. 69, remarks that the persistence of this fear among modern Semites is partially chargeable for the lack of correct statistics as to the population of Oriental towns. Frazer (in _Anthropological Essays to E. B. Tylor_, p. 174) refers to the dread of enumeration felt by the Lapps and by a West African tribe. ¹And Satan¹ stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel. ¹ Or, _an adversary_. =1.= _And Satan stood up against Israel_] In 2 Samuel “And again (a former occasion being at the time of the famine, 2 Samuel xxi. 1) the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them.” The change is significant of the late date of Chronicles In an earlier stage of Hebrew thought human sin and folly are at times naïvely ascribed to the agency of God, e.g. “He hardens Pharaoh’s heart” (Exodus x. 1, etc.): “quem Deus vult perdere prius dementat.” At a later date the instigation of some subordinate “evil” spirit was adduced, e.g. 1 Kings xxii. 20‒24; and eventually this spirit of temptation was expressly termed “The Satan” or “Satan,” i.e. “The Adversary.” He was then regarded as a hostile spiritual being, the opposite of a _guardian_ angel such as the Michael of Daniel x. 13, 21, xii. 1. In the book of Job the Satan is very definitely said to act under the guidance and will of God. Here nothing is said of the Satan having been directed by Jehovah. _to number_] Only those of military age (verse 5), over twenty years of age (xxvii. 23, 24), were included in the census. ²And David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, Go, number Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan; and bring me word, that I may know the sum of them.