But it appears that all this instruction had been given him in vain. He was still disposed to depend, in the transaction before us, upon the “_arm of flesh_.” Proud of the extent of his dominions and of the multitude of his subjects, and secretly pleased with the proof it would afford to other nations of his own wisdom and good government, he caused the people to be numbered; although, as the opening of this very chapter shows, it was against the advice, and even the entreaties, of his own officers. For “_Joab_, _the captain of the host_, _had said unto the king_, _Now the Lord thy God add unto the people_, _how many soever they be_, _an hundredfold_, _and that the eyes of my lord the king may see it_: _but why doth my lord the king delight in this thing_? _Notwithstanding the king’s word prevailed against Joab_, _and against the captains of the host_.” {4c} The heart of David, however, was soon opened by Divine grace to confess and to deplore the offence which he had committed. And the fearful judgment that followed served at once, in the most instructive manner, to humble and to disappoint him, by showing him how entirely he was dependent upon God for that _very source of strength and greatness_ which his conceit led him to prize so highly, and how suddenly he might be stripped of it. The account is given in the verses which follow immediately upon the text. For being allowed to choose between three visitations, famine, war, and pestilence, and preferring that which he supposed would fall upon his country most lightly, “_the Lord_,” we read, “_sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed_, _and there died of the people seventy thousand men_.”