2 Samuel 24:12-15

12 "Go and speak to David, 'Thus the LORD says, "I am offering you three things; choose for yourself one of them, which I will do to you.""'

13 So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, "Shall ¹seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days' pestilence in your land? Now consider and see what answer I shall return to Him who sent me."

14 Then David said to Gad, "I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of the LORD ²for His mercies are great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man."

Pestilence Sent

15 So ³the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand men of the people ⁴from Dan to Beersheba died.

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2 Samuel 24:12-15 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.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 4

1. 1 Chronicles 21:12; Ezekiel 14:21
2. Psalms 51:1; Psalms 130:4, 7
3. 1 Chronicles 21:14; 1 Chronicles 27:24
4. 2 Samuel 24:2

Footnotes 1

[a]. Lit "gave"