2 Samuel 24:10-15

10 David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, LORD, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”
11 Before David got up the next morning, the word of the LORD had come to Gad the prophet, David’s seer:
12 “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the LORD says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’ ”
13 So Gad went to David and said to him, “Shall there come on you three[a] years of famine in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague in your land? Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”
14 David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the LORD, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”
15 So the LORD sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died.

2 Samuel 24:10-15 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.

Cross References 9

  • 1. S 1 Samuel 24:5
  • 2. S Numbers 22:34; 2 Samuel 12:13
  • 3. S Numbers 12:11; 1 Samuel 13:13
  • 4. S 1 Samuel 22:5
  • 5. 1 Samuel 9:9; 1 Chronicles 29:29
  • 6. Dt 28:38-42,48; S Deuteronomy 32:24; Ezekiel 14:21
  • 7. S Exodus 5:3; S Exodus 30:12; S Leviticus 26:25; Dt 28:21-22,27-28,35
  • 8. Nehemiah 9:28; Psalms 4:1; Psalms 51:1; Psalms 86:5; Psalms 103:8,13; Psalms 119:132; Psalms 130:4; Isaiah 54:7; Isaiah 55:7; Jeremiah 33:8; Jeremiah 42:12; Daniel 9:9
  • 9. 1 Chronicles 27:24

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Septuagint (see also 1 Chron. 21:12); Hebrew "seven"
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