Did God or Satan prompt David's census? 2 Samuel 24 vs 1 Chronicles 21

The passages

And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.

2 Samuel 24:1

And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.

1 Chronicles 21:1

The problem

The same event is told in nearly the same words, with one change that matters. In Samuel, God incites David to take a census and then punishes Israel with a plague for it. In Chronicles, Satan provokes David. A reader may ask why God would command an act and then judge those who carried it out, and why the later text changes the agent.

What believers and scholars say

God permitted, Satan acted. A common explanation, as in the book of Job, is that Satan works only within limits that God sets. Samuel describes the ultimate cause and Chronicles the immediate one. Both are true in different senses.

Theological sensitivity in a later age. Japhet and many others see Chronicles as written after the exile, in a period when Jewish thought had developed a more distinct figure of an adversary. The author of Chronicles may have been uncomfortable with a God who tempts and so changed the text. In that case the change is evidence for development in the Bible itself.

A word about "satan". In Hebrew the word can mean "adversary" or "accuser". Some readers argue that in 1 Chronicles 21:1 it is not yet a proper name. Others point out that the lack of a definite article suggests it is, though Hebrew grammar leaves room for either.

Where this leaves it

The two texts make different claims about who stands behind the census. Whether that counts as a contradiction depends on whether you think God can work through an adversary, or whether you think the later author thought the earlier version needed correcting. Both readings fit what is on the page.