Differences by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · May 17, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 20.

Differences

By Editor

1662.—Differences. 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21.

Will you please explain the difference in the records as given in 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21, as, for instance, the numbers of the armies and, also, the amounts paid by David to Ornan for his threshing-floor.

2 Sam. 24:9 gives of Israel able to bear arms 800,000 men; of Judah, 500,000, a total of 1,300,000. 1 Chron. 21:5 gives of Israel 1,100,000; of Judah, 470,000, a total of 1,570,000, a difference of 270,000 men. It has been suggested that the writer of Chronicles included the regular army (see chapter 27:1-15), a little less at the time, while the writer of Samuel did not. If this is not the true supposition, there is no doubt a mistake somewhere in the part of the transcription of the numbers in one or the other places.

As to the price paid, it is suggested that the 600 gold shekels of 1 Chron. 21:25 should read six gold shekels, worth at that time about fifty silver. Another explanation is that the sum of fifty silver shekels was paid for the threshing-floor and the oxen (2 Sam. 24:24), while the 600 gold shekels was for the price of "the place," the whole top of Mount Moriah, on which the threshing-floor was, and where the temple was afterward built.