Bible Time

Research Report on 2 Samuel 24, David's Evil Census

In 2 Samuel chapter 24 the Lord's anger against Israel and Judah causes the Lord to incite David against Israel and Judah by causing David to conduct a census. This brought the country under wrath as the king was not to do this without collecting a tax. This chapter contains a set of numbers that predict a series of events in the future history of the world. We look at the math here.

Background

This particular set is interesting because all of the math points at known world history and various invasions of countries down through the age. The following is the entire report. Because of the complexity of the data presented in this chapter the report is broken into two parts. The first deals with the dates implied by the choices presented to David by the angel. The second deals with the dates implied by the actual census counts.

David's evil census, Part I: Dates.
Day	Bible Date	Modern Date	Roman Date	Number
Epoch 9980/1/15 AA
This is 15 days before known end of David's life.
Tue	9980/1/15 AA	9 Oct -1008 NS	1 Dec 338 BAUC	AA:3640335
	480/1/15 FE	19 Oct -1008 OS	1 Dec 1091 BC	JD:1353178
9 months and 20 days at 1 day/year.1 (9 * 30) + 20 = 290
This is a second epoch, from which further dates are measured.
Fri	10270/1/15 AA	22 May -718 NS	20 Nov 11 AUC	AA:3746115
	770/1/15 FE	30 May -718 OS	20 Nov 743 BC	JD:1458958
3 days plague ends here at 1 day/year.2
Tue	10273/1/15 AA	5 Jun -715 NS	5 Six 15 AUC	AA:3747225
	773/1/15 FE	13 Jun -715 OS	5 Six 739 BC	JD:1460068
50 additional years at 1 year/shekel.3
Sun	10323/1/15 AA	15 May -665 NS	19 Sep 70 AUC	AA:3765465
	823/1/15 FE	22 May -665 OS	19 Sep 684 BC	JD:1478308
70,000 days later at 1 death/day.4
The angel was stopped from destroying Jerusalem.5
Sun	10514/12/25 AA	9 Jan -473 NS	24 Nov 267 AUC	AA:3835465
	1014/12/25 FE	14 Jan -474 OS	24 Nov 487 BC	JD:1548308
3 months foriegn army from second epoch ends here at 1 day/year.6
Thu	10360/1/15 AA	30 Apr -628 NS	29 Sep 108 AUC	AA:3778965
	860/1/15 FE	7 May -628 OS	29 Sep 646 BC	JD:1491808
50 additional years at 1 year/shekel.7
Tue	10410/1/15 AA	9 Apr -578 NS	17 Feb 159 AUC	AA:3797205
	910/1/15 FE	15 Apr -578 OS	17 Feb 595 BC	JD:1510048
3 years of famine from second epoch ends here at 1 day/year.8
Sun	11350/1/15 AA	5 Feb 361 NS	4 Feb 1114 AUC	AA:4140105
	1850/1/15 FE	4 Feb 360 OS	4 Feb 361 AD	JD:1852948
50 additional years at 1 year/shekel.9
Fri	11400/1/15 AA	14 Jan 411 NS	13 Jan 1164 AUC	AA:4158345
	1900/1/15 FE	13 Jan 410 OS	13 Jan 411 AD	JD:1871188

David's evil census, Part II: Counts.
Day	Bible Date	Modern Date	Roman Date	Number
Epoch 10020/1/15.
This the first year after the Priests stop supporting Rehoboam.
Mon	10020/1/15 AA	10 Sep -968 NS	20 Nov 290 BAUC	AA:3654915
	520/1/15 FE	19 Sep -968 OS	20 Nov 1043 BC	JD:1367758
500,000 days later, at 1/day for each counted Judahite.10
Fri	11390/9/5 AA	24 Aug 401 NS	23 Aug 1154 AUC	AA:4154915
	1890/9/5 FE	23 Aug 401 OS	23 Aug 401 AD	JD:1867758
800,000 days later, at 1/day for each counted Israelite.11
Sat	12213/1/5 AA	7 Jan 1223 NS	31 Dec 1975 AUC	AA:4454915
	2713/1/5 FE	31 Dec 1222 OS	31 Dec 1222 AD	JD:2167758

Meaning

The time taken to conduct the census is given to us as 9 months and 20 days. This is interesting because it is not the 20th day of a 9th month, but implies 20 days past 9 full months. This leads us to compute that it was a 290 day interval to conduct the census. When this was done David was confronted by the sin involved in this evil act and is given three choices for how his nation will be punished.

For all long distance year based prophecy we use the 15th day of the first month of the year as our starting day. This was used as the point of reference for the Exodus and long distance dates from that point, so we presume this to the the point for all annual measurements when we are not told otherwise.

We start with the year 9980 AA as this was the year that the temple construction begun at the time of David's death. The implied date then is 9980/1/15 a.a. which was probably a few days before David's death, though we do not know for certain.

When we run 290 years forward from this date we end up at 10270/1/15. This is the descision point were the angel gives David some choices. In this case we have a secondary starting epoch, the point from which each choice will be measured.

Choice 3: 3 days of plague

This choice is the sortest of the choices and is the one chosen by David when this happened during his reign. As prophecy this goes another 3 years forward, bringing the date to 10273/1/15 AA This date is the start of the 3 years that the capital of the northern kingdom, the kingdom of Israel, was sacked by the Assyrians.

Curiously, this date is the last date in the Biblical chronology for the northern kingdom, but in a passage in Isaiah where this is covered a longer period is given before it is totally overrun. This passage gives 65 years¹³ before they are overrun so much that they cannot be a people. In David's case this is seen by the additional 50 years granted by the price he pays for the threshing floor when he stops the plague on his people.¹⁴ When we add these 50 years onto the predicted destruction of Samaria we get 10323/1/15 as the indicated date, consistant with Isaiah's 65 years.

This choice was prophetic for the destruction of the Northern Kingdom capitaled at Samaria.

Choice 2: 3 months of invasion

This choice is longer, at one day per year the 3 months implied here are 90 years. When we use the secondary epoch discussed above we get (10270 + 90 =) 10360/1/15 as the indicated date. Here too we must factor in the 50 years that the price of the threshing floor implies to this story or (10270 + 90 + 50 = ) 10410/1/15. Of course it was in 10409 that Jerusalem was overrun and burned by the Babylonians.

This choice is prophetic for the desctruction of the southern kingdom, capitaled at Jerusalem.

Choice 1: 3 years of famine

This was the first choice given by the angel to David. It was the longest of the choices involving three years of famine on his people. This choice has the longest fulfillment. Using a year for each day in 3 years yeilds (360 * 3 = 1080 years). This too must have the 50 year implied by the 50 shekels paid for the threshing floor so 1130 years total are implied by this choice. When we use the secondary epoch discussed above the implied final year for this prophecy is 11400/1/15 a.a.

When we look this up on the Roman calendar we see that it it "fulfilled" 13 January 411 AD Roman.

When we survey world history we see that just like the sacking of Jerusalem in the year before the indicated date, that Alaric the Goth sacked Rome in 410 AD Roman. This sacking was followed by a second sacking of Rome in 455 AD, and essentially the end of the Western Roman empire by 476 AD when the Germans placed a mercenary on the Roman throne.

This choice indicates the sacking of Rome by Alaric the Goth in 410 AD.

More

This is not the only way this passage fortells sackings. The census counts themselves reported to David also show the years of future destruction of peoples related to David.

The census counts seperate the two parts of David's kingdom, the northern Kingdom, Israel, had 800,000 fighting men, the southern kingdom had 500,000 men.

Since these two counts are seperate we must use a different starting epoch to measured the implied days. The natural epoch for this purpose is 10020/1/15, the first year after the priests stop supporting Rehoboam and David's united kingdom is now two. This is consistant with the structure of the two counts reported to David.

500,000 days after the epoch yeilds 11390/9/5 a.a. or the 23 of August 401 AD. This is when the Visigoths invaded Italy, an invasion related to the other invasion of Rome by Alaric.

This is prophetic for the sacking of Rome.

This is actually reversed from what we might expect, as this is a Judah count and Judah will move into the eastern part of the old Roman empire. If the split in the kingdom's had not happened after Solomon's death they would have been strong enough to ward this off. This is a date involving the future history of the northern kingdom, even though it is a southern kingdom census count.

Similary, the northern kingdoms 800,000 fighting men, at one per day from our starting epoch yeilds the date December 31, 1222 AD. This a date close to the Mongol invasion of Russia, a country derived from the southern kingdom. If they had not split they would have been strong enough to ward off this invasion. As it was they lost and were sacked by the Mongols.

This is prophetic for the sacking of Russia.

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¹Second Samuel 24:8    
²Second Samuel 24:13    
³Second Samuel 24:24    
⁴Second Samuel 24:15    
⁵Second Samuel 24:16    
⁶Second Samuel 24:13    
⁷Second Samuel 24:24    
⁸Second Samuel 24:13    
⁹Second Samuel 24:24    
¹⁰Second Samuel 24:9    
¹¹Second Samuel 24:9    
¹²Second Kings 18:10    
¹³Isaiah 7:8    
¹⁴Second Samuel 24:24