■ 1
Satan stood up against Israel:
According to 2 Sam 24:1, “The anger of Yahweh was again kindled against Israel
and he [Yahweh] incited David to number the people.” Chronicles omits the
clause about Yahweh’s anger being kindled “again” from the Vorlage, since this links back to 2 Sam 21:1–14, a passage not
included in Chronicles, which told of a three-year famine because of the
bloodguilt stemming from the house of Saul. Chronicles also replaces the
problematic idea of Yahweh’s anger leading to his temptation of David to number
the people, and it attributes this temptation instead to Satan.5
Satan’s motivation is unknown and irrelevant to the Chronicler’s purpose, but
Satan plays a similar accusatory role in his other two occurrences in the OT:
the prologue to the book of Job (chaps. 1–2) and the postexilic prophet
Zechariah (3:1–2*). Only in Chronicles, however, does this word lack the
definite article and therefore function as a personal name. Japhet, 374–75,
notes that the figure of Satan does not appear elsewhere in Chronicles and that
angels appear in this work only when they are already present in the
Chronicler’s sources (in this chapter and 2 Chr 32:21). Since this figure in v.
1 does not appear in the divine realm and his incitement is against David
rather than against God, she proposes that what is meant is a human adversary.
But the use of the verb “stand” (עמד) in a legal sense, used also with “the
adversary” in Zech 3:1, and the use of the verb “incited” (סות),
also used with “the adversary” in Job 2:3, suggest that a supernatural tempter/accuser is
indeed intended. A similar use of Satan to lessen problematic actions by Yahweh
can be seen in the later book of Jubilees,
where it was Mastema (= Satan) who suggested to God that he test Abraham by
having him sacrifice Isaac (Gen 22:1; Jub.
17:15–18), and who replaced Yahweh as the agent who tried to kill Moses on his
way to Egypt (Exod 4:24; Jub. 48:2).
Rudolph, 143, notes that the Tg conflates and harmonizes the contrasting
notions of the cause of the census in Samuel and Kings by having Yahweh cause
Satan to stand up against Israel. In tempting David, Satan puts Israel itself
at risk.
and incited David to number
Israel: Censuses were ordinarily taken for purposes of taxation or military
conscription. The latter is clearly intended here since it is conducted by
Joab, David’s chief army officer and the commanders of the troops, and the
results are listed according to those “who drew the sword.” The Chronicler
changed the name of the group to be numbered from “Israel and Judah” in 2 Sam
24:1 to “Israel” alone in 1 Chr 21:1—that is, the whole nation of Israel (the
numbers for Judah in v. 5 are secondary; see below). He also omitted from the Vorlage בהם
“against them,” which would imply that David engaged in hostile action against
Israel. (Ralph W. Klein, 1 Chronicles: A
Commentary [Hermeneia—a Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible; Minneapolis,
Minn.: Fortress Press, 2006], 418–419)
21:1. “an adversary” (śāṭān). So MT and LXXB (diabolos). LXXL Satan. MT 2 Sam 24:1 reads, “and Yhwh
was angry again against Israel and incited David.” Tg. conflates the reading of
2 Sam 24:1 with that of 1 Chr 21:1, “and Yhwh raised up Satan.” This is the
only mention of śāṭān in Chronicles
and it requires some discussion. Most translations render śāṭān as a proper name, “Satan.” This is possible (e.g., LXXL),
but śāṭān is normally an indefinite
noun (Num 22:22, 32; 1 Sam 29:4; 2 Sam 19:23 [ET 19:22]; 1 Kgs 5:18 [ET 5:4];
11:14, 23, 25; Ps 109:6). As Japhet (1989: 145–49) and Day (1988: 127–45) have
argued, the most plausible meaning for the noun śāṭān is “an (anonymous) adversary.” The celestial adversary of
Yhwh in Job 1–2, a kind of prosecuting attorney in the divine council, is
rendered with the definite article haśśāṭān.
See also the use of haśśāṭān in Zech
3:1, 2, rendered with the article in LXX (ho
diabolos). To put the case somewhat differently, if śāṭān is being used as a proper name in 21:1, whether of a certain
(otherwise unknown) human person named Satan or of a divine intermediary
(“Satan”), this is the only instance in the entire HB in which the term has
such a denotation. It thus seems preferable to interpret śāṭān according to its normal usage as an indefinite noun.
“to take a census.” Literally,
“to number” (limnôt). Indirect
discourse is found in both MT and LXX 21:1, whereas 2 Sam 24:1 has direct
discourse, “(incited David) against them saying, ‘Go and take a count.’ ”
“Israel.” So MT and LXX. In
anticipation of 2 Sam 24:9, 2 Sam 24:1 adds “and Judah.” (Gary N. Knoppers,
1 Chronicles 10-29: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary [Anchor
Yale Bible 12A; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008], 743-44)
