Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to take a census of Israel.
World English Bible
This verse is examined in more than one Scripture Analysis section. Each lens is shown on its own terms, in the section's own words; GEBible reaches no verdict of its own.
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Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to take a census of Israel.
World English Bible
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
2 Samuel 24:1 is unambiguous: "the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah." Yahweh himself incites the census.
Critical scholarship: Widely regarded as a genuine contradiction.
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
Each section sets the viewpoints side by side; you weigh the evidence. Here, "critical scholarship" means academic study, not a value judgment. How this is built →
Within each section, grouped by shared field or question type — not a cross-section comparison.
This citation refers to this GEBible page — the verse and the analysis gathered here. To cite the underlying scholarship, cite those sources directly.
"1 Chronicles 21:1 — Scripture Analysis" GEBible, https://gebible.app/analysis/verse/1-chronicles/21/1?version=WEB (retrieved 27 August 2026).