2 Samuel 24:12

12 "Go and tell David, 'This is what the LORD says: I'm offering you three choices. Choose the one you want me to do to you.'"

2 Samuel 24:12 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 24:12

Go, and say unto David
Not my servant David, as Nathan was bid to say to him when it was in his heart to build an house for him, ( 2 Samuel 7:5 ) ; but now he had sinned and displeased the Lord, and therefore it is only plain David:

thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three [things];
or lay them before thee to consider of which thou wouldest have done; the Targum is,

``one of three things I cast upon thee,''

as a burden to bear; one of the three I will certainly inflict upon thee by way of chastisement:

choose thee one of them, that I may [do it] unto thee;
here is mercy mixed with judgment; the Lord is angry, yet shows great condescension and goodness; a sovereign Being, who could have imposed what punishment he pleased, and even all the three after mentioned, yet resolves but on one, and leaves that to the option of David.

2 Samuel 24:12 In-Context

10 After David counted the people, his conscience troubled him. David said to the LORD, "I have committed a terrible sin by what I have done. LORD, please forgive me because I have acted very foolishly."

11 When David got up in the morning, the LORD spoke his word to the prophet Gad, David's seer.

12 "Go and tell David, 'This is what the LORD says: I'm offering you three choices. Choose the one you want me to do to you.'"

13 When Gad came to David, he told David this and asked, "Should seven years of famine come to you and your land, or three months during which you flee from your enemies as they pursue you, or should there be a three-day plague in your land? Think it over, and decide what answer I should give the one who sent me."

14 "I'm in a desperate situation," David told Gad. "Please let us fall into the LORD's hands because he is very merciful. But don't let me fall into human hands."