Chapter 21 of Divrei HaYamim I brings us into the episode of the census: King David counts Israel, and in the wake of the census, a plague strikes the people. The commentary attributed to Rashi writes here: "'And Satan stood up against Israel' - even though this narrative is not to David's honor, it was recorded here." This statement requires careful examination, for the commentary attributed to Rashi himself writes throughout the book that Ezra recorded events for David's glory, focusing on things that demonstrate his greatness. This is why the sin of Batsheva is omitted here, and why the incident with Yishbi-Benov seen in the previous chapter - where David grew faint and fell into danger - is also absent. All the less favorable matters concerning David are omitted in this book. If so, why was such an unpleasant event recorded specifically here, where David brought a plague upon Israel by counting them unlawfully?
The commentary attributed to Rashi resolves this: at the end of the narrative, it relates that David built an altar and Hashem answered him with fire from heaven, which brought great honor to David. Since this is the case, Ezra also recounts the beginning of the story, so that we may understand the background leading up to that momentous hour.
וַיַּעֲמֹד שָׂטָן עַל־יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיָּסֶת אֶת־דָּוִיד לִמְנוֹת אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל׃ - And Satan stood up against Israel, and incited David to count Israel.
The Radak asks: Who is this Satan standing and inciting David? He answers: It is the inclination planted in man's heart from his youth. Do not think that some unique Satan was created here specifically for David; this is the constant Satan, planted in the human heart, and he stands against Israel, inciting David from within to count them. As Chazal taught: "He is Satan, he is the Angel of Death, he is the yetzer hara" - they are all one and the same in different guises.
In the Book of Shmuel, it is said: "And again the anger of Hashem was kindled against Israel, and He incited David against them," which implies that the Holy One, Blessed be He, was the One who incited him, whereas here it states, "And Satan stood up." The Radak explains: In truth, Hashem incited him, but the incitement was carried out through Satan, because Israel was deserving of punishment. Furthermore, Satan himself is called an angel of Hashem - as we see later when David sees the angel of Hashem with his drawn sword in his hand, poised to stay the plague. "His angels, who perform His word," and one of them is Satan. Satan does not act independently and is not a power unto himself; the Holy One, Blessed be He, is the One who gave him the power to cause sin and bring man into temptation. Consequently, there is no contradiction between what is written there and what is written here: the messenger of Hashem who arose in this case was Satan, and he is the one who leads astray and the one who puts to death.
This entire narrative appears in II Shmuel, Chapter 24, where it was studied at length with the Malbim's commentary. Here, we will mention only briefly the core of his explanation: following the rebellion of Sheva ben Bichri, David feared that the people were no longer fully with him, and that in the hour of need - when he would require them for war - there would be mass evasion. To prevent this, David sought to obtain the specific name of every single individual.
One must understand the reality of those times. It was not like today, where every person is cataloged with a biometric fingerprint and no other possibility exists. In their day, when a person was born - who knew he was born? When a person died - who knew he had died? "And it was not known when he lay down or when he arose." They knew roughly that in a certain place there were thirty thousand or forty thousand people, but they did not know specifically who the individuals were, what their names were, to whom to send a letter when conscription was needed, or when a particular person had reached military age. David wanted to ascertain all this, so that when he needed to go to war, he would not suddenly discover that he was a king without an army, but rather could send an individual call-up notice to each and every person.
On this, the Malbim notes: this was an incitement and instigation, for this action was completely unnecessary - the people of Israel were completely loyal to him. In the Book of Shmuel it says, "to count Israel and Yehudah," whereas here Ezra emphasizes "to count Israel" alone. Even though we will see later that Yehudah was also counted, the primary focus of the census was Israel. This is because the entire census stemmed from a lack of trust in the people, and the ones in whom David placed less trust were Israel. Yehudah - that was his tribe, his family; they stood by him through all stages, even when he faced Shaul, so he feared them less. But concerning Israel he harbored apprehension, just as we see later when the kingdom divided, that Israel no longer followed the kings of the House of David. Therefore, Ezra reveals that the primary objective was to count Israel, whom David viewed as the weak link that needed to be counted to ensure that when summons came, they would come to fight with him.
וַיֹּאמֶר דָּוִיד אֶל־יוֹאָב וְאֶל־שָׂרֵי הָעָם לְכוּ סִפְרוּ אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל מִבְּאֵר שֶׁבַע וְעַד־דָּן וְהָבִיאוּ אֵלַי וְאֵדְעָה אֶת־מִסְפָּרָם׃ - And David said to Yoav and to the leaders of the people, "Go, count Israel from Beer-sheva to Dan, and bring it to me, that I may know their number."
The Malbim analyzes the precise wording. The term lifkod ("to muster" or take a general census) refers to the overall tally, the grand total, intended to determine the size of the army compared to an opposing enemy. But that was not what David wanted, nor what he was seeking. David did not ask for a general census, but for a sefira (counting). The meaning of counting is to enumerate them individually and record their names: so-and-so and so-and-so, with each person accounted for personally before him. The Malbim cites proofs from other verses for the distinctions between minyan (number), pekida (muster), and sefira (counting), explaining each one. And that itself was the sin - that he sought to know them one by one in order to know whom to draft.
וַיֹּאמֶר יוֹאָב יוֹסֵף ה' עַל־עַמּוֹ כָּהֵם מֵאָה פְעָמִים הֲלֹא אֲדֹנִי הַמֶּלֶךְ כֻּלָּם לַאדֹנִי לַעֲבָדִים לָמָּה יְבַקֵּשׁ זֹאת אֲדֹנִי לָמָּה יִהְיֶה לְאַשְׁמָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל׃ - And Yoav said, "May Hashem add to His people a hundred times as many as they are! Are they not, my lord the king, all my lord's servants? Why should my lord seek this? Why should it become a cause of guilt for Israel?"
Metzudat David explains: Yoav sensed that the king harbored a desire to know their total number - how many soldiers he had, like a person holding a stack of banknotes who longs to count how much he has. Yoav said to him: May Hashem multiply them many times over, doubling and redoubling them up to a hundredfold! And my lord surely knows - "they are all my lord's servants," entirely loyal to the king, and even if they multiply further, "in a multitude of people is the king's glory." Why, then, do you need to know their exact number? It can only bring desolation upon Israel - "guilt" (ashmah) in the sense of ruin - for blessing rests only upon that which is hidden from sight, and when you expose the number, you risk triggering a plague. As is well known, this issue arose on several occasions, and whenever a census was conducted in the Land, this concern was present: how to avoid bringing about a plague.
The Malbim adds: In light of our explanation, Yoav's words are remarkably profound. Yoav is telling him: Your entire reason for wanting to know their exact individual count is to know whom to conscript, because you fear they will not stand with you in the hour of need. But you are mistaken - "Are they not, my lord the king, all my lord's servants?" They are all faithful to you! On the contrary, the count itself will bring guilt and desolation upon Israel. Therefore, it is unfitting for the king to question their loyalty, and it is unfitting for him to count them.
There is a wonderful insight here: Yoav's argument is alluded to in Parashat Ki Tisa. "When you take a census of the Children of Israel according to their numbers, each man shall give an atonement for his soul to Hashem when counting them, so that there will be no plague among them when counting them" (Shemot 30:12). Take the word yihyeh ("there will be") and read the initial letters backwards: Yihyeh, Velo, Otam, Bifkod - spelling Yoav (יואב). This was precisely Yoav's claim: you will only cause this to bring guilt upon Israel. And as Chazal teach, there is nothing that is not alluded to in the Torah.
וּדְבַר־הַמֶּלֶךְ חָזַק עַל־יוֹאָב וַיֵּצֵא יוֹאָב וַיִּתְהַלֵּךְ בְּכׇל־יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיָּבֹא יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם׃ - But the king's word prevailed over Yoav; so Yoav departed and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.
וַיִּתֵּן יוֹאָב אֶת־מִסְפַּר מִפְקַד־הָעָם אֶל־דָּוִיד וַיְהִי כׇל־יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶלֶף אֲלָפִים וּמֵאָה אֶלֶף אִישׁ שֹׁלֵף חֶרֶב וִיהוּדָה אַרְבַּע מֵאוֹת וְשִׁבְעִים אֶלֶף אִישׁ שֹׁלֵף־חָרֶב׃ - Yoav gave the number of the census of the people to David. All of Israel were one million one hundred thousand men who drew the sword, and Yehudah was four hundred and seventy thousand men who drew the sword.
Although Yoav personally opposed the census, King David was his sovereign and his command overrode Yoav's objections. Yoav therefore went out and traveled throughout all of Israel to count the people, and upon his return, he presented the census total to David.
Here lies the great difficulty: the discrepancy between the census results recorded in the Book of Shemuel and the results presented here before us. Here it states "a thousand thousands and a hundred thousand," which is 1,100,000 men who drew the sword, and Yehudah was 470,000. In Shemuel, however, Yehudah numbers 500,000 - where did 30,000 disappear to? On the other hand, the rest of the nation in Shemuel numbers only 800,000, while here it is 1,100,000 - how were 300,000 added?
The Radak, as well as Rashi in Shemuel, cite the words of Rabbi Shimon ben Levi: the verses add here what they omitted there. These are the two tribes that were not counted, as it is written, "and Levi and Binyamin he did not count among them." Yoav said to himself: With these I can evade the command. The tribe of Levi is not counted in the tally of the other tribes except from a month old and upward, whereas the others are counted from age twenty; and if David asks where the tribe of Levi is, I will answer that they are not included in the census. And simply put, David is looking for military men who go out to war, and the tribe of Levi does not wage war, so they are not included in the census. And what about Binyamin? It was enough that they were diminished and decimated in the incident of the Concubine of Giv'ah, where only six hundred men remained from the entire tribe and there was concern that a tribe would be wiped out from Israel. That curse was enough for them; let us not bring upon them an additional curse by counting them, causing further loss among them and bringing guilt upon them. From these two tribes I was able to escape. According to this, what is stated here, "and Levi and Binyamin he did not count among them," reveals where he did not count them - namely, there in the Book of Shemuel; whereas here, the complete tally of 1,100,000 is given.
However, the Radak raises two difficulties. First: you have not resolved the count of Yehudah. Regarding Levi and Binyamin it makes sense, and that explains the 300,000 missing there among Israel; but in Yehudah there is a discrepancy of 30,000 - where does that come from?
The second difficulty: here the larger count appears, and there the smaller count appears. Logically, it should have been written there in Shemuel that Levi and Binyamin were not counted, and therefore they are only 800,000 there, whereas here it is 1,100,000 because the tally includes Levi and Binyamin. Yet notice - the verse, "and Levi and Binyamin he did not count among them," is written specifically here in our book and not there! The Radak remarks: this is illogical, beyond the fact that Yehudah remains without an answer.
The Radak, as well as Rashi in Shemuel, further cites from the Thirty-Two Hermeneutical Principles of Rabbi Eliezer the son of Rabbi Yose HaGelili: two verses that contradict one another remain in conflict until a third verse comes and harmonizes them. One verse states, "And all Israel were a thousand thousands and a hundred thousand men who drew the sword, and Yehudah was 470,000 men who drew the sword," and another verse states, "And Israel were 800,000 men, and Yehudah was 500,000 men" - thus there is a difference between them of 300,000. And what is the nature of these 300,000? A third verse comes and decides: "And the Children of Israel according to their number, the heads of the fathers' houses and the officers of thousands and hundreds and their officers who served the king in every matter of the divisions that came in and went out month by month throughout all the months of the year, each division was twenty-four thousand" - 300,000 were already registered in the royal roster and did not need to be counted.
In other words, there were those who were already registered in the king's royal roster, the personnel of his divisions and his officials. There was no need to count them, as they were already accounted for and on record with the king, receiving a monthly salary from him. Therefore, the number in Shemuel is smaller - 800,000, excluding the men of the royal divisions - while here it is 1,100,000, which includes them. Yet here too, the question remains: what about Yehudah?
To this the Radak replies: it is possible that all those 30,000 died in the plague. Scripture states that 70,000 died in the plague, and 30,000 of them were from Yehudah. And why did so many die from Yehudah out of proportion to the other tribes - 30,000 out of 70,000? Because it was David's tribe, and David was, as it were, the cause; therefore, more died from his tribe. According to this, what is written here, 470,000, is not the original count but the figure after the plague, for in the original census there were 500,000.
The Radak further cites a Midrash: Yoav prepared two tally slips, one larger and one smaller. He thought: if he accepts the smaller one, good; and if not, I will give him the larger one. That is, he prepared two tallies, and if David was satisfied with the smaller count, well and good, and if not, he would give him the larger one, which was simply the actual count. What was his intent in doing so? First, with a smaller count there is less concern about the evil eye, for the evil eye is triggered by astonishment - "They are so many!" Furthermore, if David did not know their true number, it was as if they had not been counted at all, since the king remained unaware of their precise tally.
One must realize that the primary issue with a census is separating the individual. Why can a census lead to a plague? We discussed this regarding Parashat Ki Tisa: the greatness of Yisrael lies in being part of a collective, and as part of a collective - "And your people are all righteous." When you view them as "all of them", they are righteous. But when you begin to divide them - "Their heart is divided; now they shall bear their guilt" - when you itemize and divide them, prosecution is aroused.
We gave a parable for this: A person comes to an etrog stand and looks - what beautiful etrogim, truly magnificent! Then he starts picking them up one by one: this one has a leaf mark (and the seller already knew to place it with the mark facing down), that one's shape is nothing special, and another has a black spot. When you inspect them individually, it no longer looks so good. It is likewise told of Rabbi Eliyahu Lopian that while traveling along the coastal highway, he remarked: Look at the sea, what a breathtakingly magnificent sight - yet if we draw closer to the water, we see plastic bags, slime, tar, and debris. When you look at higher resolution, flaws are immediately exposed; but when you look at the whole, the whole is complete: "You are altogether beautiful, my beloved, and there is no blemish in you." When you look at the "altogether", the beloved is beautiful and there is no blemish in them. This is part of the problem with a census: when you separate them and focus on each individual, who can claim to be complete? And from that comes the prosecution.
The Malbim follows this same line of thought: that Yoav did not count Levi and Binyamin. And he apparently sees no difficulty in the fact that this is stated here and not in Shmuel, because Ezra came to reveal what was left unexplained in the Book of Shmuel: You want to know why the number in Shmuel is smaller? Because "Levi and Binyamin he did not count among them, for the king's word was abominable to Yoav." Even though this is stated in our book, Ezra is revealing thereby what took place there.
And what about the contradiction regarding Yehudah? That too is resolved. Scripture states that nine cities were given from Yehudah to the sons of Aharon, and the people of Binyamin were also intermingled with Yehudah and lived in the same areas. Yoav counted these people among the men of Yehudah - they numbered thirty thousand, and he mistakenly counted them as Yehudah. For while he did not count Levi and Binyamin on their own, he did count those residing within the territory of Yehudah as part of Yehudah.
According to this, what happens here becomes clear: when Ezra counts, "And all Yisrael were one million one hundred thousand," he also calculated Levi and Binyamin in their entirety, who numbered three hundred thousand. But then one must subtract from Yehudah those thirty thousand whom Yoav mistakenly counted as part of Yehudah, since they truly did not belong there, but rather to Levi and Binyamin. Therefore, Ezra removes thirty thousand from Yehudah and restores them to their proper place - to those three hundred thousand of Levi and Binyamin, some of whom lived elsewhere and some in the territory of Yehudah. Consequently: three hundred thousand are added to Yisrael, because these are Levi and Binyamin, and thirty thousand are deducted from Yehudah, because these were from Levi and Binyamin whom Yoav mistakenly included in Yehudah.
וְלֵוִי וּבִנְיָמִן לֹא פָקַד בְּתוֹכָם כִּי־נִתְעַב דְּבַר־הַמֶּלֶךְ אֶת־יוֹאָב׃ - But Levi and Binyamin he did not count among them, for the king's word was abominable to Yoav.
וַיֵּרַע בְּעֵינֵי הָאֱלֹהִים עַל־הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה וַיַּךְ אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל׃ - And this matter was displeasing in the eyes of God, and He struck Yisrael.
"Over this matter" - over their having been counted, and Metzudat David explains: without a soul's ransom. And "He struck Yisrael" - because of this the plague came. The Malbim makes a precise observation here: some illness had already begun among the people. What prompted his difficulty? Later on, we see that David was granted the choice of what form of punishment would strike, and if it already says "and He struck Yisrael", what room was there for a choice? Simply understood, one could say like Metzudat David that as a result of this, the blow came upon Yisrael, and Scripture will detail below how it came, so "and He struck" does not describe that immediate moment. But the Malbim found this difficult to interpret that way, since it says "and He struck" as a completed action; therefore, he explains that some affliction had already begun among the people, some plague had begun to circulate, and afterward came the major plague, as we will see in the subsequent verses.
וַיֹּאמֶר דָּוִיד אֶל־הָאֱלֹהִים חָטָאתִי מְאֹד אֲשֶׁר עָשִׂיתִי אֶת־הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה וְעַתָּה הַעֲבֶר־נָא אֶת־עֲווֹן עַבְדְּךָ כִּי נִסְכַּלְתִּי מְאֹד׃ - And David said to God: "I have sinned greatly in doing this thing; and now, please remove the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly."
David says: I have sinned in doing this thing, by counting them without an atonement offering (kofer nefesh). "Remove now" - so that they will not die, and thereby the iniquity will pass away and there will be no plague. "For I have acted very foolishly" - I committed an act of foolishness, and the guilt lies with me; why, then, should they have to suffer?
However, Chazal explain that the people harbored hidden sins, which is why the Holy One, blessed be He, incited David to count them. It is certainly true that no person dies because of another's sin; no one died on David's account. Their death was solely due to their own hidden sins, for which the Holy One, blessed be He, exacted retribution from them.
The commentary attributed to Rashi notes on "remove now the iniquity (avōn) of Your servant": the word is spelled here with two vavs (עווֹן), as it is in only three other places in Tanach; everywhere else, "avon" is written with a single vav. As a general rule: when a word appears in full spelling (ketiv malei), it denotes fullness, and when it appears deficient (chaser), it denotes deficiency. Here, the full spelling indicates a complete and grave iniquity: "Remove the full iniquity that I have committed."
The second occurrence is: "Behold, in iniquity (be'avōn) was I brought forth, and in sin did my mother conceive me" - meaning that even the most pious of individuals cannot be entirely free of some subtle trace of unintended sin, for a father acts partly out of his own inclination, which is categorized there as iniquity. According to this, it requires further study, as this seems to imply a major sin, whereas it may actually reflect the supreme righteousness of Yishai. The third occurrence is: "His iniquities (avōnōtav) shall ensnare the wicked" - his abundant iniquities. And the fourth is: "we will find iniquity (avōn)" - regarding the four lepers at the city gate, who said, let us go and inform the king that Aram has fled and abandoned all their property, for if we do not go and tell the royal house, it will be a grave iniquity and calamity will befall us. Thus, in every place where "avon" is written with two vavs, it refers to a grave and substantial iniquity, and such is the case in David's confession here.
Chapter 21 opens with an episode that does not reflect favorably on David, yet it is recorded here because of its outcome - the building of the altar and Hashem answering with fire from heaven. The Satan, who is none other than the yetzer hara planted within the human heart and Hashem's agent to test man, incited David to count Israel. The root of this incitement lay in the lingering concern following the rebellion of Sheva ben Bichri, fearing the people might fail to mobilize when summoned. Therefore, David demanded an individual "counting" rather than a collective "census," and this itself constituted the sin. Yoav protested, arguing that "they are all servants to my master," an argument hinted at in the acronyms in Parashat Ki Tisa, yet the king's word prevailed over him. The Rishonim reconciled the discrepancy between the count here and the one in Shmuel in several ways: Levi and Binyamin who were not numbered, the three hundred thousand men in the royal divisions, thirty thousand from Yehudah who perished in the plague, and Yoav's two tallies. The Malbim explains that Yoav mistakenly included thirty thousand men from Levi and Binyamin residing within Yehudah's territory, and Ezra restored them to their rightful place. The underlying rationale of the entire prohibition is that separating individuals from the collective arouses heavenly accusation, for only when viewing the community as a unified whole does the principle apply: "You are all beautiful, my beloved, and there is no blemish in you." David acknowledges and confesses, "I have sinned greatly," and within the full spelling of "avōn" lies his profound awareness of the magnitude of his sin - and that awareness itself is the beginning of rectification.