Compare & Correlate · Lexical
David's census, twice
The same event told twice, meeting on one verb. In Samuel the LORD, angry with Israel, incites David to count the people; in Chronicles it is Satan, or an adversary, who incites him. The numbers differ too. Every difference is drawn with both readings, and none is resolved.
Lexical: A word the passages share, with its count in the annotated corpus.
David's census, twice. Lexical — the link is the words themselves, checked token by token against the annotated Hebrew corpus, with a count wherever rarity is the finding.
- סוּת sut, “incite” — 2 verses in the annotated Hebrew corpus holding it together with satan, adversary: 1 Chronicles 21:1, Job 2:3
The words, as the corpus holds them (each checked present, or absent, in the verses cited beside it):
- אַף af, “anger”
- סוּת sut, “incite”
- שָׂטָן satan, “adversary, Satan”
- הַ ha-, “the”
- שֶׁבַע sheva, “seven”
- שָׁלֹשׁ shalosh, “three”
- כֶּסֶף kesef, “silver”
- זָהָב zahav, “gold”
Where the sources disagree: who incited David. Both are shown; neither is resolved.
- 2 Samuel 24:1 — the LORD, whose anger was kindled against Israel
- 1 Chronicles 21:1 — Satan, or an adversary, who stood against Israel
Where the sources disagree: how many fighting men were counted. Both are shown; neither is resolved.
- 2 Samuel 24:9 — Israel 800,000 and Judah 500,000
- 1 Chronicles 21:5 — Israel 1,100,000 and Judah 470,000
Where the sources disagree: how many years of famine were offered. Both are shown; neither is resolved.
- 2 Samuel 24:13 — seven
- 1 Chronicles 21:12 — three
Where the sources disagree: what David paid. Both are shown; neither is resolved.
- 2 Samuel 24:24 — fifty shekels of silver, for the threshing floor and the oxen
- 1 Chronicles 21:25 — six hundred shekels of gold, for the place
Sources:
- Every word marked present or absent is checked in the verse cited beside it, and the count of verses holding sut with satan is re-derived from the annotated Hebrew corpus, by tests/test_correlations.py.
- The design note gave the verb as יסת; the corpus lemma is סות.
- The harmonisations — that God permitted what Satan did, that the figures count different groups, that the prices buy different things — are readings of the two texts and are not drawn.
Row by row
| 2 Samuel 24 | 1 Chronicles 21 | |
|---|---|---|
| Who incites David | the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he incited David2 Samuel 24:1 | Satan stood against Israel, and incited David1 Chronicles 21:1 |
| One verb, sut, in both verses. The subject is what differs. | ||
| Satan, or an adversary | no adversary in the verse2 Samuel 24:1 | satan without the article — the verse has none at all1 Chronicles 21:1 |
| Whether that makes it a name or a common noun is argued, and the missing article is what both sides cite. Job 2:3 is the one other verse with this verb and this noun, and there it has the article. | ||
| The men counted | Israel 800,000; Judah 500,0002 Samuel 24:9 | Israel 1,100,000; Judah 470,0001 Chronicles 21:5 |
| The famine offered | seven years of famine2 Samuel 24:13 | three years of famine1 Chronicles 21:12 |
| The price | the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver2 Samuel 24:24 | the place for six hundred shekels of gold1 Chronicles 21:25 |
Where it appears in the text
- 2 Samuel 24 — the census, incited by the LORD's anger
- 1 Chronicles 21 — the census, incited by Satan
In the app this comparison opens beneath each of those chapters. Open it in TheophilusBible.