2 Samuel 24:15

15 So ADONAI sent a plague on Isra'el from that morning until the end of the specified time; 70,000 of the people died between Dan and Be'er-Sheva.

2 Samuel 24:15 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 24:15

So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel
Upon the land of Israel, the people of the land, directly employing an angel to go through the coasts of it, and empowering him to inflict a pestilential disease:

from the morning even to the time appointed:
from the morning the prophet Gad came to David with a message from the Lord; that very morning the plague began, and lasted to the time set for it, the three days, or at least unto the beginning of the third, when reaching Jerusalem, the Lord repented of it, and stayed his hand; though many think a much shorter time is intended; some think it lasted no more than half a day, if so much; some say but three hours ^F6; the Septuagint version, until dinnertime; and the Syriac and Arabic versions, until the sixth hour of the day, which was noon; and so Kimchi says, some of their Rabbins interpret it of the half or middle of the day; the Targum is,

``from the time the daily sacrifice was slain until it was burnt;''

and it is the sense of several learned men that it was only from the morning until the time of the evening sacrifice, or evening prayer, about three o'clock in the afternoon, and so lasted about nine hours:

and there died of the people, from Dan even to Beersheba, seventy
thousand men;
so that there was a great diminution of the people in all places where they were numbered; and David's sin may be read in the punishment of it; his heart was lifted up by the numbers of his people, and now it must be humbled by the lessening of them.

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FOOTNOTES:

F6 Pirke Eliezer, c. 43.

2 Samuel 24:15 In-Context

13 Gad came to David and told him; he said: "Do you want seven years of famine in your land? or do you want to flee before your enemies for three months while they pursue you? or do you want three days of plague in your land? Think about it, and tell me what to answer the one who sent me."

14 David said to Gad, "This is very hard for me. Let us fall into the hand of ADONAI, because his mercies are great, rather than have me fall into the hand of man."

15 So ADONAI sent a plague on Isra'el from that morning until the end of the specified time; 70,000 of the people died between Dan and Be'er-Sheva.

16 But when the angel stretched out his hand toward Yerushalayim to destroy it, ADONAI changed his mind about causing such distress and said to the angel destroying the people, "Enough! Now withdraw your hand."The angel of ADONAI was at the threshing-floor of Aravnah the Y'vusi.

17 David spoke to ADONAI when he saw the angel striking the people; he said, "Here, I have sinned, I have done wrong. But these sheep, what have they done? Please! Let your hand be against me and against my father's family!"