Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Chronicles 21:15
And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
15. unto Jerusalem ] The plague arrived in Jerusalem after making ravages elsewhere.
as he was destroying ] R.V. as he was about to destroy, agreeing with 2 Sam., when the angel stretched forth his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it.
It is enough ] The sudden cessation of this pestilence has numerous parallels in the history of epidemics.
the threshingfloor of Ornan ] The Chronicler makes this threshing-floor the site of the Temple. The author of Sam. is silent on the point. Cp. 1Ch 21:25; 1Ch 21:28, notes.
Ornan ] This is the form of the name throughout this chapter, but in 2 Samuel 24 the K’r gives everywhere Araunah, The C’thb of Sam. however offers various forms, one of which (to be read Ornah, 1Ch 21:16) approximates to the form given in Chron. Variation in reproducing foreign names is common; see note on 1Ch 18:5 ( Damascus), and on 2Ch 36:6 ( Nebuchadnezzar).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1Ch 21:15
And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it.
The destroying angel
Lessons:
I. That idleness is the parent of sin. It was when David was living as king in ease at Jerusalem that he was tempted of Satan.
II. That one of the best remedies for woe is work. The angel of destruction stayed his steps at the threshing-floor of Ornan, even as the angel of salvation visited Gideon as he was threshing wheat.
III. That prayer, even at the eleventh hour, may be by Gods grace efficacious. When the sword was actually drawn in the hand of the destroyer it was kept from further execution when David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.
IV. That our gifts to God, as to men, should be bestowed in a generous spirit.
V. That we should not offer to God what costs us nothing.
VI. That God sanctifies efforts, however weak they may be, if they be sincerely made; accepts gifts, however humble they may be, if bestowed from the heart.
VII. That the best proof that we can have that our offering is accepted by God is not that we experience a sense of inflated importance or self-satisfaction, but that we are filled with an abiding sense of peace.
VIII. That though we may worship God anywhere and everywhere, yet that in His duly consecrated sanctuary, it is fittest to do Him reverence. (R. Young, M. A.)
Man, through the devil, bringing tremendous evils on the world
That men suffer for the sins of others is a fact written in every page of history, obvious in every circle of life, and recognised as a principle in the government of God. The fathers eat sour grapes, and the childrens teeth are set on edge. That this principle is both just and beneficent, consider–
1. That no man is made to suffer more than he deserves on account of his own personal sins.
2. The men of Israel now for their own sins deserved this stroke of justice.
3. That the evil which descends to us from others is not to be compared to that which we produce ourselves.
4. The sufferings that come to us from others can give us no remorse, which is the very sting of the judgment–our own sins do this.
5. That the knowledge that we can injure society by our own conduct has a strong tendency to restrain vice and stimulate virtue. (Homilist.)
David and Israel
I. The progressive course of sin.
1. Temptation. Satan the black fountain of all transgression.
2. Transgression (1Ch 21:2). In face of warning (1Ch 21:3). Its desperate folly seen by others (1Ch 21:6). The deadening, hardening power of any lust.
3. Punishment (1Ch 21:10-12). As soon will the magnet escape the influence of the pole, the sea the influence of the moon, an atom the binding force of gravitation, as the sinner escape punishment. Be sure your sin, etc.
II. The progressive course of reconciliation with God.
1. The messenger, Gods afflictive stroke (1Ch 21:7). The prophet, Gad (1Ch 21:9). Every person or circumstance that reproves is Gods messenger.
2. Conviction. (1Ch 21:8). The true convict, always confesses, never excuses. Not only owns the sin, but acknowledges its greatness.
3. Penitence (1Ch 21:16).
4. Acceptance.
5. Grateful acknowledgment (1Ch 21:24).
III. Underlying truths.
1. Though man be tempted, sin is his own act.
2. Our sins affect others. How many widows and orphans!
3. Though sin be pardoned, it leaves terrible scars behind. In Davids memory. Gaps in the families and homes of the people. Avoidance of sin is infinitely better than pardon. Christ the only sin-healer. (R. Berry.)
The sin of one may involve the suffering of others
When the father of the house goes down in character he carries down with him, to a considerable extent, the character of his innocent children. The bad man is laying up a bad fortune for those whom he has brought into the world; long years afterwards they may be told how bad a man their father was, and because of his iniquity they may be made to suffer loss and pain. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Suffering through others
Our sin affects others as well as ourselves. A man whose garden was injured by a troublesome weed said it was due to a neighbours neglect. He had let his garden run wild, and when the seeds of this particular weed were ripe, the wind blew them over the fence. So one sin may make many innocent people suffer.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 15. And God sent an angel] Thus the Targum: “And the WORD of the LORD sent the angel of death against Jerusalem to destroy it; and he beheld the ashes of the binding of Isaac at the foot of the altar, and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, which he made in the Mount of Worship; and the house of the upper sanctuary, where are the souls of the righteous, and the image of Jacob fixed on the throne of glory; and he turned in his WORD from the evil which he designed to do unto them; and he said to the destroying angel, Cease; take Abishai their chief from among them, and cease from smiting the rest of the people. And the angel which was sent from the presence of the Lord stood at the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
15. stood by the threshing-floor ofOrnan the JebusiteOrnan was probably his Hebrew or Jewish,Araunah his Jebusite or Canaanitish, name. Whether he was the oldking of Jebus, as that title is given to him (2Sa24:23), or not, he had been converted to the worship of the trueGod, and was possessed both of property and influence.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
See Gill “1Ch 21:1”.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
, “And God sent an angel towards Jerusalem,” gives no suitable sense. Not because of the improbability that God sent the angel with the commission to destroy Jerusalem, and at the same moment gives the contrary command, “Stay now,” etc. (Berth.); for the reason of this change is given in the intermediate clause, “and at the time of the destroying the Lord repented it,” and command and prohibition are not given “at the same moment;” but the difficulty lies in the indefinite (without the article). For since the angel of Jahve is mentioned in 1Ch 21:12 as the bringer of the pestilence, in our verse, if it treats of the sending of this angel to execute the judgment spoken of, must necessarily be used, or , as in 1Ch 21:16; the indefinite can by no means be used for it. In 2Sa 24:16 we read, instead of the words in question, , “and the angel stretched out his hand towards Jerusalem;” and Bertheau thinks that the reading (in the Chron.) has arisen out of that, by the letters being exchanged for , and being substituted for this divine name, as is often the case in the Chronicle; while Movers, S. 91, on the contrary, considers the reading of the Chronicle to be original, and would read in Samuel. But in that way Movers leaves the omission of the article before in the Chronicle unexplained; and Bertheau’s conjecture is opposed by the improbability of such a misunderstanding of a phrase so frequent and so unmistakeable as , as would lead to the exchange supposed, ever occurring. But besides that, in Samuel the simple is strange, for the angel has not been spoken of there at all before, and the lxx have consequently explained the somewhat obscure by . This explanation suggests the way in which the reading of our text arose. The author of the Chronicle, although he had already made mention of the in 1Ch 21:12, wrote in 1Ch 21:15 , “the angel of God stretched (his hand) out towards Jerusalem,” using instead of , – as, for example, in Jdg 6:20, Jdg 6:22; Jdg 13:6, Jdg 13:9, and Jdg 13:13, Jdg 13:15, Jdg 13:17. alternates with , and omitting with , as is often done, e.g., 2Sa 6:6; Psa 18:17, etc. By a copyist and have been transposed, and was then taken by the Masoretes for an accusative, and pointed accordingly. The expression is made clearer by , “And as he destroyed, Jahve saw, and it repented Him of the evil.” The idea is: Just as the angel had begun to destroy Jerusalem, it repented God. , adverb, “enough,” as in 1Ki 19:4, etc., with a dativ commodi , Deu 1:6, etc. Bertheau has incorrectly denied this meaning of the word, connecting with in 2Sa 24:16, and desiring to alter our text to make it conform to that. In 2nd Samuel also is an adverb, as Thenius also acknowledges.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(15) And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it.The reading of Samuel is probably right, And the angel stretched out his hand towards Jerusalem, to destroy it. The verb is the same word in each, and the word God in our text is substituted for Jehovah, which, again, is a misreading of part of the Hebrew of Samuel (yd ha), the first word meaning his hand, and the second being the definite article belonging to angel.
To destroy.A different voice of the same verb as in Samuel.
And as he was destroying, the Lord beheld. Not in Samuel. The words soften the harshness of the transition from the command to the countermand (Bertheau).
As he was destroying.About (at the time of) the destroying; when the angel was on the point of beginning the work of death. It does not appear that Jerusalem was touched. (Comp. 2Sa. 24:16.)
That destroyed.Samuel adds, Among the people. The addition is needless, because the Hebrew implies the destroying angel. (Comp. Exo. 12:23.
It is enough, stay now.According to the Hebrew accentuation, Enough now (jam satis), stay (drop) thine hand.
Stood.Was standing. Samuel, had come to be.
Ornan.So the name is spelt throughout this chapter. Samuel has the less Hebrew-looking forms ha-rnah (text; comp. the LXX. pva) or ha-Arawnah, margin) here, and in 1Ch. 21:18 Aranyah (text), elsewhere Arawnah. Such differences are natural in spelling foreign names. The LXX. have Orna, the Syriac and Arabic Aran.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1Ch 21:15. Ornan the Jebusite In Samuel, Araunah: there is no great difference between the words in the Hebrew.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Ch 21:15 And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
Ver. 15. Unto Jerusalem to destroy it. ] There was the ark; there were David and the elders humbling themselves: thither therefore the plague came last.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
angel
(See Scofield “Heb 1:4”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
unto Jerusalem: 2Sa 24:16, Jer 7:12, Jer 26:9, Jer 26:18, Mat 23:37, Mat 23:38
repented him: Gen 6:6, Exo 32:14, Jdg 2:18, Jdg 10:16, Psa 78:38, Jer 18:7-10, Jon 4:2
It is enough: Exo 9:28, 1Ki 19:4, Psa 90:13, Mar 14:41
Ornan: 2Sa 24:18, Araunah, 2Ch 3:1
Reciprocal: Gen 19:13 – Lord hath 1Ch 21:12 – the angel 1Ch 21:18 – that David 1Ch 21:27 – the Lord Psa 135:14 – he will repent Ecc 5:8 – higher than they Eze 9:1 – Cause Amo 7:3 – General Zec 9:7 – a Jebusite Mar 14:35 – and fell 1Co 10:10 – destroyer
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Ch 21:15-16. God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it, &c. This seems to import that there were more angels than one employed to effect this destruction in different parts of the country: and that the angels, sent to Jerusalem, had begun to slay some of its inhabitants. The Lord beheld, and repented him of the evil Probably because he beheld their serious repentance. David and the elders clothed in sackcloth That is, in mourning garments; fell on their faces Humbling themselves before God for their sins, and deprecating his wrath against the people.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
21:15 And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and {f} as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he {g} repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
(f) Read 2Sa 24:16.
(g) When God draws back his plagues, he seems to repent, read Gen 6:6.