Talmud Class: The Bible Story About No Good Options

No good options. All options are bad.

There is a hard-to-understand Bible story, 2 Samuel 24, about what do we do when there are no good options.

King David commissions a census. How many soldiers are there in Israel and in Judah? The text assumes, without stating why, that this is a grievous sin. King David’s general Joab knows this is a sin but does it anyway because the King has commanded it. What makes the sin particularly puzzling is that God incited David to do the census. God punishes David and Israel for the very census that God instigated. What is that?

Once King David has the answer to how many soldiers he has, he learns from the prophet Gad that God is furious with him. Punishment is coming, and King David gets to choose from among three horrific options: a 7-year famine, a 3-month military defeat, or a 3-day pestilence.

The pestilence that follows claims the lives of 70,000 perfectly innocent citizens of Judah and Israel. To King David’s credit, he owns that he has made a mistake, and he seeks atonement.

The story raises so many questions:

Why is taking a census is a sin? And why, if God instigated it, is it a sin? How can God punish David and the kingdom for a census God instigated?

Why is there collective punishment? Why, if King David sinned, do all the citizens of his kingdom have to suffer?

How does King David secure atonement?

What does this rich story teach us about our world today, where there is a lot of suffering and not a lot of good options?