Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Samuel 24:1

"And again the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, Go, number Israel and Judah." — 2 Samuel 24:1 (ASV)

Kindled against Israel. — This was not because of the numbering of the people, but because of that which ultimately led to that act. We are not told why the anger of the Lord was kindled, but no doubt because He saw in both king and people that rising spirit of earthly pride and reliance on earthly strength which led to the sin.

He moved. — The pronoun here stands for “the Lord,” yet in 1 Chronicles 21:1, the temptation is attributed to Satan, and Satan is clearly understood as the devil, and not simply as “an adversary.” This is a striking instance of attributing directly to God whatever occurs under His permission.

And yet it is more than that. God has established immutable spiritual as well as material laws, or rather those laws themselves are but the expression of His unchanging will. Whatever occurs under the operation of those laws is said to be His doing.

Now David’s numbering the people was the natural consequence of the condition of worldliness and pride into which he had allowed himself to fall. God then moved him, because He had from the first so ordered the laws of the spirit that such a sinful act should be the natural outcome of such a sinful state. Of other interpretations: that which makes the verb impersonal—“one moved”—is hardly tenable grammatically; and that which makes the nominative a sort of compound word—“the wrath of the Lord” (as in some of the ancient versions)—leads to substantially the same explanation as that given above.

The word “number” in this verse is a different one from that used in the rest of the chapter, and means simply to count, while the other conveys the idea of a military muster.