In 1 Chronicles 21, Satan or an adversary incites David to count Israel. Comparison with 2 Samuel 24 raises questions about divine agency, translation, and the development of the adversary figure.
Satan is a figure whose meaning has changed substantially across Jewish, Christian, Islamic, literary, esoteric, and modern Satanic contexts. In contemporary theistic Satanism, Satan may be understood as a real deity, spirit, adversary, initiator, or metaphysical intelligence. Those modern interpretations draw on, but are not identical with, the much older history of the word and character.