2 Samuel 24:16-17

16 When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the LORD relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the LORD was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

17 When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the LORD, “I have sinned; I, the shepherd,^[a] have done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Let your hand fall on me and my family.”

2 Samuel 24:16-17 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

• 1. S Genesis 6:6; 1 Samuel 15:11
• 2. S Genesis 16:7; S Genesis 19:13; S Exodus 12:23; Acts 12:23
• 3. Psalms 74:1; Psalms 100:3; Jeremiah 49:20
• 4. S Genesis 18:23
• 5. John 1:12

Footnotes

• [a]. Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint; Masoretic Text does not have "the shepherd" .