Aegidius Sadeler I after Maerten de Vos

David's Atonement to Avert the Plague, 1580–96, Copper engraving, 202 x 254 mm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; RP-P-H-H-1233, Image courtesy of Open Access Rijksmuseum

God’s Wrath

Commentary by Arabella Cifani

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The theme of God’s wrath pervades many passages in 2 Samuel. It is a different wrath from that of the pagan gods because it is a face of love: God wants his people to return to him. But he also uses terrible methods to do so.

David sins, at Satan’s instigation as recounted in 1 Chronicles 21:1, and the responsibility is his: he orders a census that he should not have taken. But the consequence of his sin falls on the innocent Israelites who will die from the plague.

The engraving made by Aegidius Sadeler I from a drawing by the Antwerp painter Maerten de Vos was intended to be part of a cycle of Old Testament scenes published by Johann Sadeler. It presents a condensed and didactic, extremely clear form of the narrated episode from 2 Samuel 24:15–25 and 1 Chronicles 21:14–27. The angel is sent by God ‘to destroy Jerusalem’ (1 Chronicles 21:14); he appears above a field strewn with corpses in front of the city in the background. He is also the angel who then orders David, through the prophet Gad, to build an altar of atonement ‘on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite’ (21:18). The prophet stands in the foreground and mediates between the angel and David, who is kneeling before the altar to offer ‘burnt offerings and sacrifices of fellowship’ on the altar (21:26). The angel stands with drawn sword ‘between heaven and earth’, between the punitive God and the suffering man.

De Vos further emphasises this function by equipping the angel not only with a sword, but also with a whip and skull: all elements that are not mentioned in the biblical text, but that were common symbols of death and punishment.

God, however, definitively forgives David, who is sincerely repentant: God is appeased after the sacrifices at the new altar and the scourge of the plague immediately ceases to affect the people. In the engraving, it becomes clear that the smoke of that sacrifice rising to heaven is about to make the scourge cease.

 

References

Bowen, Karen Lee and Dirk Imhof. 2001. ‘Book Illustrations by Maarten de Vos for Jan Moretus I’, Print Quarterly, 18.3: 259–89

Shoaf, Jane V. 1980 ‘A Seventeenth-Century Album of Drawings by Marten de Vos’ Master Drawings, 18.3: 237–52, 295–311

See full exhibition for 2 Samuel 24:1–25; 1 Chronicles 21:1–27

2 Samuel 24:1–25; 1 Chronicles 21:1–27

Revised Standard Version

2 Samuel 24

24 Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go, number Israel and Judah.” 2So the king said to Joʹab and the commanders of the army, who were with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beer-sheba, and number the people, that I may know the number of the people.” 3But Joʹab said to the king, “May the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see it; but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?” 4But the king’s word prevailed against Joʹab and the commanders of the army. So Joʹab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to number the people of Israel. 5They crossed the Jordan, and began from Aroʹer, and from the city that is in the middle of the valley, toward Gad and on to Jazer. 6Then they came to Gilead, and to Kadesh in the land of the Hittites; and they came to Dan, and from Dan they went around to Sidon, 7and came to the fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites; and they went out to the Negeb of Judah at Beer-sheba. 8So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. 9And Joʹab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to the king: in Israel there were eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand.

10 But David’s heart smote him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, I pray thee, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.” 11And when David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, 12“Go and say to David, ‘Thus says the Lord, Three things I offer you; choose one of them, that I may do it to you.’ ” 13So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, “Shall three years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? Now consider, and decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me.” 14Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress; let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.”

15 So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time; and there died of the people from Dan to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men. 16And when the angel stretched forth his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord repented of the evil, and said to the angel who was working destruction among the people, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Arauʹnah the Jebʹusite. 17Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was smiting the people, and said, “Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, be against me and against my father’s house.”

18 And Gad came that day to David, and said to him, “Go up, rear an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Arauʹnah the Jebʹusite.” 19So David went up at Gad’s word, as the Lord commanded. 20And when Arauʹnah looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming on toward him; and Arauʹnah went forth, and did obeisance to the king with his face to the ground. 21And Arauʹnah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy the threshing floor of you, in order to build an altar to the Lord, that the plague may be averted from the people.” 22Then Arauʹnah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him; here are the oxen for the burnt offering, and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. 23All this, O king, Arauʹnah gives to the king.” And Arauʹnah said to the king, “The Lord your God accept you.” 24But the king said to Arauʹnah, “No, but I will buy it of you for a price; I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 25And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord heeded supplications for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel.

1 Chronicles 21

21 Satan stood up against Israel, and incited David to number Israel. 2So David said to Joʹab and the commanders of the army, “Go, number Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, and bring me a report, that I may know their number.” 3But Joʹab said, “May the Lord add to his people a hundred times as many as they are! Are they not, my lord the king, all of them my lord’s servants? Why then should my lord require this? Why should he bring guilt upon Israel?” 4But the king’s word prevailed against Joʹab. So Joʹab departed and went throughout all Israel, and came back to Jerusalem. 5And Joʹab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to David. In all Israel there were one million one hundred thousand men who drew the sword, and in Judah four hundred and seventy thousand who drew the sword. 6But he did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, for the king’s command was abhorrent to Joʹab.

7 But God was displeased with this thing, and he smote Israel. 8And David said to God, “I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing. But now, I pray thee, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.” 9And the Lord spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying, 10“Go and say to David, ‘Thus says the Lord, Three things I offer you; choose one of them, that I may do it to you.’ ” 11So Gad came to David and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Take which you will: 12either three years of famine; or three months of devastation by your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three days of the sword of the Lord, pestilence upon the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.’ Now decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me.” 13Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress; let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is very great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.”

14 So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel; and there fell seventy thousand men of Israel. 15And God sent the angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; but when he was about to destroy it, the Lord saw, and he repented of the evil; and he said to the destroying angel, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” And the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebʹusite. 16And David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. 17And David said to God, “Was it not I who gave command to number the people? It is I who have sinned and done very wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, O Lord my God, be against me and against my father’s house; but let not the plague be upon thy people.”

18 Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and rear an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebʹusite. 19So David went up at Gad’s word, which he had spoken in the name of the Lord. 20Now Ornan was threshing wheat; he turned and saw the angel, and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. 21As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David and went forth from the threshing floor, and did obeisance to David with his face to the ground. 22And David said to Ornan, “Give me the site of the threshing floor that I may build on it an altar to the Lord—give it to me at its full price—that the plague may be averted from the people.” 23Then Ornan said to David, “Take it; and let my lord the king do what seems good to him; see, I give the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for a cereal offering. I give it all.” 24But King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will buy it for the full price; I will not take for the Lord what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings which cost me nothing.” 25So David paid Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the site. 26And David built there an altar to the Lord and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the Lord, and he answered him with fire from heaven upon the altar of burnt offering. 27Then the Lord commanded the angel; and he put his sword back into its sheath.

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