2 Samuel 24:13-23

13 So Gad came to David and told him and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? Or wilt thou flee three months before thy enemies while they pursue thee? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in thy land? Now advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.

14 Then David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait; let us fall now into the hand of the LORD, for his mercies are great, and let me not fall into the hand of man.

15 So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the time appointed, and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men.

16 And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD himself repented of that evil and said to the angel that was destroying the people, It is enough; stay now thy hand. And the angel of the LORD was by the threshingfloor of Araunah, the Jebusite.

17 And David spoke unto the LORD when he saw the angel that smote the people and said, I have sinned, I committed the iniquity, but these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, be against me and against my father’s house.

18 And Gad came that day to David and said unto him, Go up, erect an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Araunah, the Jebusite.

19 And David went up, according to the word of Gad, as the LORD had commanded him.

20 And Araunah looked and saw the king and his slaves coming on toward him, and Araunah went out and bowed himself before the king on his face upon the ground.

21 And Araunah said, Why is my lord the king come to his slave? And David answered, To buy this threshingfloor of thee, to build an altar unto the LORD, that the plague may be stayed from the people.

22 And Araunah said unto David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good unto him; behold, here are oxen for burnt sacrifice and threshing instruments and other instruments of the oxen for wood;

23 all these things does king Araunah give unto the king. Then Araunah said unto the king, The LORD thy God accept thee.

2 Samuel 24:13-23 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO SECOND SAMUEL 24

In this chapter an account is given of David's numbering of the people, 2Sa 24:1-9; of the sense he had of his sin, and of his acknowledgment of it; and of the Lord's displeasure at it, who sent the prophet Gad to him, to propose three things to him, one of which he was to choose as a punishment for it, 2Sa 24:10-13; when he chose the pestilence, which carried off a great number of the people, 2Sa 24:14-17; and David was directed to build an altar to the Lord in the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite, with whom he agreed for it, and built one on it, and offered upon it, and so the plague was stayed, 2Sa 24:18-25.