1 Chronicles 16:15

16:15 Remember ¹  continually his covenantal decree,

the promise he made ²  to a thousand generations –

1 Chronicles 21:1

The Lord Sends a Plague against Israel

21:1 An adversary ³  opposed ⁴  Israel, inciting David to count how many warriors Israel had. ⁵ 

[16:15]  ¹ tn The Hebrew text has a masculine plural imperative, addressed to the people. Some LXX mss harmonize the wording here to Ps 105:8, which has זָכַר (zakhar), the perfect third masculine singular form of the verb, “He (the Lord) remembers” (so NIV; NEB reads “He called to mind his covenant”).

[16:15]  ² tn Heb “[the] word he commanded.” The text refers here to God’s unconditional covenantal promise to Abraham and the patriarchs, as vv. 16-18 make clear.

[21:1]  ³ tn Or “Satan.” The Hebrew word שָׂטָן (satan) can refer to an adversary in general or Satan in particular. There is no article accompanying the term here, which suggests it should be understood generally (cf. NAB “a satan”).

[21:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “stood against.”

[21:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “and incited David to count Israel.” As v. 5 indicates, David was not interested in a general census, but in determining how much military strength he had.