Satan arose against Israel and incited David, etc. This refers to what is ingrained in a person’s heart from his youth. Now in the book of Samuel it says, “The anger of the Lord again flared up against Israel, and He incited David against them” (2 Samuel 24:1), from which it seems that it is the Lord who did the inciting. This is true: He incited him—through the Satan—because of Israel’s sinful behavior; for they deserved to be punished. Satan is also called “the angel of the Lord”: it was he whom David saw in the form of the angel of the Lord with a drawn sword in his hand (v. 16). After all, he is the one who leads people to err and the one who puts them to death.

One million one-hundred thousand ready to draw the sword, and in Judah there were four-hundred-and-seventy thousand men ready to draw the sword. But in the book of Samuel [it says] that “in Israel [there were] eight-hundred thousand” and that “[the men of] Judah numbered five-hundred thousand” (2 Samuel 24:9)! We find in an aggadah (Pesiqta Rabbati 44:1): “Rabbi Judah ben Levi said: The verses include in one place what is missing from the other—meaning two tribes that were not counted—for the text indeed says, ‘He did not record among them Levi and Benjamin’ (1 Chronicles 21:6). He figured: I can get away with omitting these, on the grounds that the tribe of Levi is not counted with the rest of the tribes but rather from the age of one month and older (Numbers 3:15); and the tribe of Benjamin suffered enough loss and devastation in the matter of the concubine at Gibeah (Judg 20:35–48).” But according to this interpretation, that verse—“He did not record among them Levi and Benjamin”—should have been written in Samuel, because it provides the reason for the lower number recorded there but no reason for the lower number of Judahites in this book! In the Thirty-two Principles of Rabbi Eliezer son of Rabbi Jose of Galilee (Principle 15) it says: “How does one apply [the principle of scriptural interpretation concerning] two texts that stand in contradiction to one another, [which provides that] a third text be invoked to decide between them? One text says, ‘All Israel comprised one million one-hundred thousand ready to draw the sword, whereas in Judah there were four-hundred-and-seventy thousand men ready to draw the sword’; and another text says, ‘In Israel there were eight-hundred thousand men, and the men of Judah numbered five-hundred thousand’ (2 Samuel 24:9). There emerges between them a difference of three-hundred thousand men! What accounts for those three-hundred thousand men? A deciding verse resolves this: ‘The number of Israelites—chiefs of clans, officers of thousands and hundreds and their clerks, who served the king in all matters of the divisions, who worked in monthly shifts during all the months of the year—each division twenty-four thousand’ (1 Chronicles 27:1). Those three-hundred thousand, then, were recorded in the king’s registry, and did not need to be counted. How so? Twenty-four thousand times twelve equals two-hundred-and-eighty-eight thousand, with the remaining twelve thousand comprising the leaders of Israel. So having left them out in one place, the text proceeds to include them elsewhere.” But this too does not provide any reason for the lower number of Judahites found here. For in the book of Samuel it says “five-hundred thousand,” while here it says “four-hundred-and-seventy thousand.” It emerges that thirty thousand are missing! Perhaps those thirty thousand died in the plague. After all, the casualties of the plague totaled seventy thousand (v. 14), thirty thousand of whom could have been from Judah. The reason why so many Judahites died would then be that Judah is David’s tribe and he was the cause of it all.

Either three years of famine. But in the book of Samuel it says, “Shall a seven-year famine come upon you in the land” (2 Samuel 24:13)! What [Gad] really conveyed to [David] was three years, but he said to him “seven” because there had already been three years of famine at that point, as it says, “There was a famine during the reign of David, year after year for three years” (2 Samuel 21:1). So Gad said to him, “Shall a seven-year famine come upon you in the land,” meaning: Is this what you wish to choose? After all, there have already been three years of famine, three more now will total six, and by the time produce arrives after six years of famine, the seventh year will not escape without famine, even though there will be rains, a plowing season, and a harvesting season.

Le-masseget (=overtaking you). The lamed is like the lameds in “le-ammot ḥamesh” (=five cubits; 2 Chronicles 3:11), “make le-kol kelav (=all its utensils) of copper” (Exodus 27:3), and those like them, which are extraneous to the meaning.

But as [the angel] was about to wreak destruction, the Lord saw and renounced. He saw that many had died and he renounced further punishment. But there is a rabbinic source (b. Berakhot 62b) [that says]: “What did He see? He saw the ashes of Isaac. For on that very threshing floor Abraham brought his son Isaac as an offering.”

Not le-maggefah. [This means]: Let Your hand not fall on them le-maggefah (=bringing a plague).

So David paid Ornan for the site gold shekels valued at six hundred. But in the book of Samuel [it says], “So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen with fifty silver shekels” (2 Samuel 24:24)! Our Sages, of blessed memory (b. Zevaḥim 116b), say: “He collected fifty from each tribe, six hundred silver [shekel-pieces] all together.” But because their value in weight was that of shekels of gold, it says “gold shekels.” (Indeed, they also say [Sifrei Deut 70]: “One verse says ‘in one of your tribal territories’ [Deut 12:14], and another verse says ‘from all your tribes’ [Deut 12:5]. It is in this connection that Rabbi Judah says: Money from all your tribes; the specially designated Temple in the territory of one tribe.”) “Rabbi says in the name of Rabbi Jose son of Dustai: The oxen, the wood, and the place designated for the altar were for fifty, and the [area for] the entire Temple for six hundred.” The language of the verses proves Rabbi correct. For in the book of Samuel it says, “the threshing floor and the oxen with fifty silver shekels,” from which it seems that the threshing floor and the oxen were for fifty; and here it says, “So David paid Ornan for the site gold shekels [valued at six hundred],” meaning the entire site. For the altar was on the [site of] the threshing floor (v. 18), whereas the Temple was built on the entire field.

In the shrine at Gibeon. The entire structure that contained the Tabernacle and the altar was called a “shrine,” because the shrine—that is, the altar—was in it. The same is true for “before he goes up to the shrine to eat” (1 Samuel 9:13); for they did not eat at the altar, but rather in the structures that housed the altar. That is what “the shrine” means.