So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning even to the appointed time; and seventy thousand men died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba.
Parallel Translations
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So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning even to the appointed time; and seventy thousand men died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba.
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So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men.
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So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed; and there died of the people from Dan even to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men.
Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to 2 Samuel 24:15 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Chronicles 21:14 So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell.
- 1 Chronicles 27:24 Joab the son of Zeruiah began to take a census, but didn’t finish; and wrath came on Israel for this. The number wasn’t put into the account in the chronicles of king David.
- Numbers 16:46-49 Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, put fire from the altar in it, lay incense on it, carry it quickly to the congregation, and make atonement for them; for wrath has gone out from Yahweh! The plague has begun.” Aaron did as Moses said, and ran into the middle of the assembly. The plague had already begun among the people. He put on the incense, and made atonement for the people. He stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed. Now those who died by the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred, in addition to those who died about the matter of Korah.
- Numbers 25:9 Those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.
- 1 Samuel 6:19 He struck of the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into Yahweh’s ark, he struck fifty thousand seventy of the men. Then the people mourned, because Yahweh had struck the people with a great slaughter.
- 1 Chronicles 27:4 Over the division of the second month was Dodai the Ahohite, and his division; and Mikloth the ruler: and in his division were twenty-four thousand.
- Isaiah 37:36 Then Yahweh’s angel went out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
- Matthew 24:7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there will be famines, plagues, and earthquakes in various places.
- Revelation 6:8 And behold, a pale horse, and the name of he who sat on it was Death. Hades followed with him. Authority over one fourth of the earth, to kill with the sword, with famine, with death, and by the wild animals of the earth was given to him.
- 2 Samuel 24:2 The king said to Joab the captain of the army, who was with him, “Now go back and forth through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and count the people, that I may know the sum of the people.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (15 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain From the one side of the country to the…
From the one side of the country to the other.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 2Sa 24:15 So the LORD sent a pestilence upon…
2Sa 24:15 So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men.
Ver. 15. From the morning, even to the appointed time,] i.e., Till toward the evening of the third day; for before that whole day was over God repented, and bade the angel hold his hand. See Jer 18:8; Jer 18:10 Jon 3:10. Vatablus, by the appointed time here, understandeth the evening of the first day, and cometh in with Hoc commendat misericordiam Dei, &c., this commendeth the mercy of God; that for three days threatened, he sendeth the pestilence one day only.
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And there died of the people.] Some, saith Josephus, died suddenly, with great pains, and bitter pangs; some lingered longer, and died under the physicians’ hands; some were all of a sudden smitten with blindness, and then with death; some, as they went to bury their dead, fell down dead themselves. The sweating sickness here in England - which began in the year 1486, and lasted almost forty years - was strange and violent; for if a man was attacked therewith he died, or escaped within nine hours, or ten at the most. If he took cold, he died within three hours. If he slept within six hours, as he should be desirous to do, he died raving, &c. {a} From England it went over the seas to Holland, Zealand, Denmark, Norway, &c., chasing only the English there, as some report, which made them, like tyrants, both feared and avoided wherever they came. {b}
{a} Sennert., De Febribus, lib. iv. cap. 15.
{b} Life of King Edward VI, by Sir John Heywood.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain To the time appointed; either,
To the time appointed; either,
1. From morning to evening, which is here called the time appointed; or, the time of the convention, or, public meeting, as this Hebrew word oft signifies, i. e. till the time of the evening prayer and sacrifice, when the people used more solemnly to meet together. See Psa 141:2; Act 3:1. Thus God mitigated his sentence, and turned three days into one; it being a thing not unusual with God to qualify his threatenings, and to take off the evil threatened sometimes wholly, as in Nineveh’s case, and sometimes in part. And this God might do here upon the speedy and serious repentance of David, and of his people. Or rather,
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2. From the morning (or rather, from that morning; for the article seems to be emphatical, and to denote that very morning in which Gad came to David, 2Sa 24:11, and that the plague did immediately ensue after Gad’s offer, and David’s choice,)
even to the time appointed, to wit, by God, i.e. for three days, as God had set the time, 2Sa 24:13.
Object. If it continued three days, how is it said that God repented him of the evil, and stopped the angel in his course? 2Sa 24:16.
Answ. This he did in the beginning of the third day, whereas otherwise it should have gone on to the end of the day. Or it may signify no more but this, At the end of the third day God gave over smiting; for then is God said (after the manner of men) to repent, when he ceaseth to proceed as before he had done. Seventy thousand men; so the number of his people, which was the matter of his pride and glorying, was diminished.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel,.... Upon…
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 (f); 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:
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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.
(f) Pirke Eliezer, c. 43.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 15. From the morning - to the time…
Verse 15. From the morning - to the time appointed] That is, from the morning of the day after David had made his election till the third day, according to the condition which God had proposed, and he had accepted: but it seems that the plague was terminated before the conclusion of the third day, for Jerusalem might have been destroyed, but it was not. Throughout the land, independently of the city, seventy thousand persons were slain! This was a terrible mortality in the space of less than three days.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain 2Sa 24:15. So the Lord sent a pestilence upon…
2Sa 24:15. So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel — The event immediately answered to the choice; a plague instantly ensued. From the morning even to the time appointed — From that morning, in which Gad came to David, to the third day, the time appointed by God for the continuance of the plague. But not to the conclusion of that day, for we learn from the next verse that God, moved by the repentance of the king and his subjects, commanded the destroying angel to stay his hand, which plainly indicates that he had not fully accomplished the commission at first given him. There died of the people seventy thousand — “A calamity,” says Delaney, “which has no parallel in the whole compass of history.” It seems that the Hebrew nation were not only guilty, at this time, of many other sins, but were very culpable in regard to the numbering of the people, as well as David. They gloried, it is probable, in, and relied upon their numbers, and their own strength, instead of trusting in God and in his promises, for protection against, and victory over their enemies. And, therefore, it was with reason that they fell in this sad manner, to show them that all flesh is grass, and that their own strength and numbers availed nothing without God.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The time appointed - Perhaps “the time of the…
The time appointed - Perhaps “the time of the assembly,” meaning the time of the evening sacrifice, at three o’clock, when the people assembled for prayer, more commonly described as “the time of the evening oblation” Dan 9:21; 1Ki 18:29, 1Ki 18:36; Act 3:1; Luk 1:10.
Seventy thousand - It is the most destructive plague recorded as having fallen upon the Israelites. In the plague that followed the rebellion of Korah there died 14,700 Num 16:49; in the plague, on account of Baal-Peor, 24,000 Num 25:9; 1Co 10:8.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain And. Septuagint insert, "And David chose death, (the pestilence,…
And. Septuagint insert, "And David chose death, (the pestilence, as they usually render it; Salien). And it was the time of the wheat-harvest. And the Lord gave death in Israel, from morning till dinner-time." (Haydock) --- Appointed, for three days; though before the end of the last, God took pity on the people, ver 16. (Calmet) --- Bochart thinks the pestilence ceased to rage at some hour of the first day. Syriac and Arabic, "till the sixth hour."
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain HIS INTERCESSION TO GOD; THE PLAGUE CEASES. (Sa2 24:15-25)
HIS INTERCESSION TO GOD; THE PLAGUE CEASES. (Sa2 24:15-25)
from the morning--rather that morning when Gad came [Sa2 24:18], till the end of the three days.
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there died of the people . . . seventy thousand men--Thus was the pride of the vainglorious monarch, confiding in the number of his population, deeply humbled.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 15. A pestilence — Some deadly plague scattered through…
15. A pestilence — Some deadly plague scattered through all the land by the destroying angel, so that at the end of three days it might be said of all the homes in Israel, as it was once in Egypt, there was scarcely a house where there was not one dead. David was vainglorious over the multitude of his warriors, but this one stroke almost decimates them.
To the time appointed — The end of the third day. This is the only natural sense of the words here, and there is no evidence that the pestilence was removed before the third day.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 15–17. The Plague
15–17. The Plague
15. even to the time appointed] The meaning of these words, which are not found in Chron., is very doubtful. (1) The E. V. follows the Vulg. usque ad tempus constitutum. This would naturally mean until the end of the third day; but the duration of the plague seems to have been mercifully shortened (2Sa_24:16). Perhaps a time appointed (there is no definite article) might mean a time determined in the counsel of God, before the expiration of the period originally named. (2) Most commentators render until the time of assembly, i.e. the hour for offering the evening sacrifice, about three o’clock in the afternoon. Cp. 1Ki_18:29; 1Ki_18:36; Dan_9:21; Act_3:1. This is supported by the explanation given in the Targum: “from the time of the slaying of the perpetual sacrifice until it is burned;” and by Jerome (Quaest. Hebr. in libros Regum): “By the time appointed is meant that at which the evening sacrifice was offered.” (3) The Sept. rendering, until the time of breakfast, i.e. noon, is improbable.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (15) The time appointed.—Much difficulty has been found with…
(15) The time appointed.—Much difficulty has been found with this expression; but, if the Hebrew can bear this meaning, it may be understood well enough of the time (somewhat less than three days, 2Sa_24:16), which God in His good pleasure determined. The Hebrew, however, probably means “time of assembly,” which is generally understood to signify the time of the evening sacrifice; so the Chaldee understand it, and so also St. Jerome. This would reduce the time of the pestilence to a single day.
When the angel.—The abruptness of the mention of “the angel” here is removed in 1Ch_21:15, “And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it; and as he was destroying it, the Lord beheld, and he repented,” &c.
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Threshing-place.—Better, threshing-floor, as the same word is translated in 2Sa_24:18; 2Sa_24:21; 2Sa_24:24.
Araunah the Jebusite.—The name is variously spelled, “Avarnah” (text), “Aranyah” (2Sa_24:18, text), and “Aravnah” (margin); in Chronicles it is uniformly “Ornan.” The latter is thought to be the Hebrew, and the former the Jebusite name, slightly varied in. expression in Hebrew. He was a Jebusite, i.e., descended from the former possessors of Jerusalem; but we are not told whether he was now a proselyte.
When he saw the angel.—More fully (1Ch_21:16), “And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the Lord stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem.”
These sheep.—David seeks to take all blame to himself, and prays that punishment may fall only upon him and his father’s house. But, without mooting the question as to how far the people actively shared in David’s sin, his prayer was impossible to be granted. Such was the divinely ordained federal relation between the ruler and his people that they were necessarily involved in the guilt of their head.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Even to the time appointed. This rendering, though very…
Even to the time appointed. This rendering, though very uncertain, is retained in the Revised Version. It would mean, of course, the end of the third day, as the pestilence was to last for that time. The objections to it are that there is no article in the Hebrew, so that literally it would be "unto a time appointed." Secondly, the pestilence did not continue unto the time appointed, but was mercifully stayed. And thirdly, these words are a literal translation, indeed, of the Vulgate, but a violation of its meaning. For Jerome, who made the translation, says, constitutum" means the hour when the evening sacrifice was offered" ("Tradd. Hebrews in Duos Libres Regum"). The versions all agree that the pestilence lasted only a few hours. Thus the Syriac translates, "From morning until the sixth hour," i.e. noon. So too the Septuagint, "From morning until the midday meal." The Vulgate adds on thrice hours, as the evening sacrifice was at the ninth hour; and this is the meaning of the Chaldee Paraphrase: "From the time the daily sacrifice was slain until it was burnt." As the word moed used here means both a time or place appointed for a meeting, and also the meeting itself, the right translation probably is, "From the morning even to the time of assembly," or, as we should say, "the hour of service." Moed was the regular word for the time of the temple service, derived from the old name of the tabernacle, which was called "the tent of moed", (see Num_16:19, etc.) rendered in the Authorized Version, "the tabernacle of the congregation," and in the Revised Version, "the tent of meeting." The hour would thus be the ninth, or three o"clock in the afternoon. Seventy thousand men. This is a vast number to fall victims of the pestilence in so short a time, as even the most dangerous forms of sickness take some days for their development. But similarly the army of Sennacherib was cut off in a night; (Isa_37:36) as were the firstborn in Egypt, whose visitation more nearly resembles the course of this pestilence; and the rapidity of the death blow, striking down so vast a multitude suddenly throughout all parts of the land, would be proof to every mind that the mortality was the Divine chastisement for national sin. It is possible, nevertheless, that the black death cloud, bringing with it the plague, may have been settling down upon the land previously, and have alarmed David, and brought him to repentance; and though no new cases occurred after the offering of his burnt offerings (ver. 25), yet it by no means follows that all cases of infection were miraculously cured. The malady may have run in them its normal course. It was Jerusalem that was saved from the blow, and, after the offering of the burnt offering, the pestilence smote down no more.
Vers. 15, 16 (JERUSALEM.) (1Ch_21:14, 1Ch_21:15)
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Pestilence.
Pestilence, even more than famine and war, was regarded by David as directly inflicted by the hand of God. How far, in this instance, it occurred in connection with secondary causes is unknown. But doubtless, ordinarily, it depends on such causes; the crowding together of great numbers of people, the accumulation of filth, the state of the atmosphere, the susceptibilities of the persons affected by it. "The peculiar source of the thought that a numbering of the people brought mischief lies probably in the experience that epidemic sicknesses often broke out in such numberings, because therein a great mass of people was crowded together, to facilitate the business, in a proportionally small space" (Thenius). Most of the great plagues that have afflicted mankind appear to have originated in the East, where the climate, the soil, and the social habits of the population afford conditions favourable to their production. In all cases, however, the hand of God must be recognized in the consequences of violating his laws, physical and moral; and in the employment of them "for correction." Consider
I ITS MOURNFUL PREVALENCE; as at this time in Israel, so in other ages and nations (Exo_12:29; Num_25:9; 2Ki_19:35; Jer_27:13)
1. Its sudden appearance.
2. Its rapid diffusion; "from the morning to the a time appointed the timeof assembly." "It burst upon the people with supernatural strength and violence, that it might be seen at once to be a direct judgment from God" (Keil).
3. Its extensive presence; "from Dan to Beersheba.
4. Its dreadful destructiveness; "seventy thousand men" (fourteen in thethousand of the whole population). "Such a pestilence and loss of life as this at Athens, 430 B.C. was nowhere remembered to have happened" (Thucydides, 2:47). At Rome (A.D. 80) ten thousand perished daily; in England (1348) more than half the population; in London (1603) over thirty thousand; and again (August 1665) eight thousand persons weekly. These are only a few of the many recorded instances of the awful "visitation of God.
II ITS MERCIFUL ARREST. "And the angel" (1Sa_29:9; 2Sa_14:17 2Sa_19:27; Psa_104:4 Psa_34:7 Psa_35:5 Psa_91:11) who had been "destroying through all the territories of Israel", (1Ch_21:12) "stretched out his hand" (having a drawn sword therein, (1Ch_21:6) "upon Jerusalem to destroy it," etc. The pestilence approached the city, threatening its destruction, and filling all hearts with terror. (1Ch_21:16, 1Ch_21:20) We can conceive that it might have spread until the whole human race perished. But its destructive force was limited (as it always is):
1. When its purpose was accomplished and the law of retribution Satisfied."it is enough.
2. By the same Divine power as sent it. "Stay now thine hand." God hasplaced in the human constitution a self-healing power. "Our natures are the physicians of our diseases" (Hippocrates). He provides special remedies for special diseases; alleviates and often cures them in unexpected, extraordinary, and mysterious ways, The Christian religion is a remedial system by which mortality itself is "swallowed up of life." "I am Jehovah thy Physician" (Exo_15:26; Mat_8:16; Joh_3:14, Joh_3:15; Rev_22:2)
3. With tender pity toward the afflicted, involving a change of hisprocedure. "And Jehovah repented him of the evil". (1Sa_15:24-31)
4. In connection with the moral condition of men and their altered relationto himself humiliation (ver. 10), trust (ver. 14), and prayer (ver. 17). "Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces", (1Ch_21:16) their spirit being doubtless shared in by the people, whose representatives they were. God deals with men according to the state of their hearts (ver. 1), and commences doing so even before it is fully expressed in outward actions. Psalm 91. ("by David," LXX), "Under the shadow of the Almighty." "Because he hath set his love upon me. Therefore will I deliver him," etc. (Psa_91:14) "Some years ago an eminent physician in St. Petersburg recommended this psalm as the best preservative against cholera" (Perowne).
III ITS MORAL USES, with respect to those who suffer from it or to mankind generally in.
1. Producing efficient impressions of the majesty of God; his sovereignty,justice, and might.
2. Proving the real condition of the hearts of men; whether they will "keephis commandments or no". (Deu_8:3)
3. Inducing, in those who are rightly disposed, proper feelings of penitence,humility, dependence, submission; and correcting vanity, pride, and self-win.
4. Inciting a purer and loftier trust in God, and more complete devotionand self-sacrifice. "Plagues to us are not funerals of terror, but exercises of holiness. We understand their meaning. They are messages sent to us by God, to explore our hearts, to sound the depth of our love to him, and to fathom our faith in God" (Cyprian, "De Mortalitate").
5. Presenting a terrible picture of the evil of sin, by exhibiting, not only thenatural consequences thereof, but also its degrading effect on the ignorant and unbelieving, who pass rapidly from the extreme of fear to the opposite extreme of recklessness, licentiousness, and despair. (1Co_15:32) "So they resolved to take their enjoyment quickly, and with a sole view to gratification; regarding their lives and their riches alike as things of a day. And fear of gods or law of men there was none to stop them" (Thucydides).
6. Teaching.the solidarity of the race; and, more especially, constraining"the higher and more privileged ranks of mankind to own their oneness of life with the humbler and more degraded or even savage classes" (Bushnell).
7. Promoting, in still other ways, the advancement of mankind inknowledge, virtue, and piety; for it is through the discipline of suffering that the race, like the individual, "learns obedience." "The Lord"s dealing herein is not penal, but paternal and medicinal" (Guild). D.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain So the Lord sent a pestilence.
2Sa_24:15-25
So the Lord sent a pestilence.
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The plague stayed
It was time of peace and prosperity in Israel. King Davids rule had been blessed, and the people dwelt in safety. In the midst of this happy quiet, David was moved to order a numbering of the people.
I. Sin overtaken by judgment. What was the sin? Outwardly it was in the numbering already referred to. But what wrong could there be in taking a census? It is now found to be useful. It had before been done in Israel, and with Divine approval. The wrong could not have been in the census itself. The real sin, then, like all sin, was in the heart; and plainly its root was pride and vain-glory. King and people forgot their dependence upon God, and the allegiance due to him. The pestilence struck directly at the pride of people and ruler. It crippled their power. It thwarted military ambition. It smote that of which they were ready to boast into feebleness and death. Are we, of these later ages, to look upon like visitations, as of fire or famine or war or pestilence as judgments for sin, or corrections for moral transgression? Never are we to be in haste, or too confident, in interpreting Divine Providence. But when we are told that devouring flames consuming great cities, famine depopulating broad lands, and pestilence which walketh in darkness, and destruction which wasteth at noonday, mean wiser building, better agriculture, more careful drainage--just this and nothing more, at least nothing moral or spiritual--we are sure that one great part of the Divine purpose has been overlooked. Doubtless God does mean that the lower lessons should be learned. He does mean to correct neglect of maxims of prudence. He does so order His laws and dealings as to make us studious, watchful, and faithful in all that pertains to physical life.
II. Judgment deepening repentance. Our Saviour has taught us that the angels shall be Gods ministers in the final judgment (Mat_13:41.) Here we find that they are His messengers in present ills. It was as one of these had reached Jerusalem, and had outstretched his hand for its destruction, that tie became visible to the king. What true humility, what deep repentance is here! There is no syllable of complaint that the Divine stroke is too heavy. There is no word of personal justification; no shielding of self under anothers fault. The sin was not all his; but he saw only his own. My sin, my transgression! Such was the language of his crushed, repentant heart. Such is the language of true repentance always--when its work is deep and thorough.
III. Repentance met by mercy. The Lord repented Him of the evil. The words are startling, as applied to God. And yet they need not be obscure. Note three things with respect to this mercy:--
1. It followed upon the deepened repentance.
2. It came in connection with expiation.
3. Then it did not straightway remove all the consequences of the sin; but, as we may believe, did convert them into means of disciplinary good.
One thing only is required from us as the condition of restored Divine favour. That is trusting repentance.
IV. A trustful reconsecration. Observe the prompt and cheerful obedience which now marked the kings conduct. No sooner did the Divine message reach him than he went up as the Lord commanded (v. 19). Nor did he find the way closed before him. Clearly the Lord, as He is wont to do with contrite souls, had gone before to prepare it. Observe, the Lord is now the Lord my God! Here is nearness, trust, love. There is no longer distance or aversion; but such peace as assured pardon always brings. Men who have had great deliverances felt to be from God have always delighted to make them occasions of fresh consecration. With all the more of humble, swelling joy will this be done when the deliverance is from what is seen to be the effect of personal sin--mercy arresting deserved judgment. In his description of the distress of Harold, the last of Englands Saxon kings, on account of his false oath, the novelist, Bulwer, has said: There are sometimes seasons in the life of man when darkness wraps the conscience as sudden night wraps the traveller in the desert, and the angel of the past with a flaming sword closes on him the gates of the future. Then faith flashes on him with a light from the cloud; then he clings to prayer as a drowning wretch to a plank; then that mysterious recognition of atonement smooths the frown on the past, and removes the flaming sword from the future. He who hath never known in himself, nor marked in another, such strange crises in human fate, cannot judge of the strength and weakness it bestows; but till he can so judge, the spiritual part of all history is to him a blank scroll--a sealed volume. There would seem to be many of whom this is true.
Is there now any one of us to whom any part of the truth brought to view in this Scripture has not some application?
1. Searching our own hearts, we should surely find some form of sin there--perhaps the very spirit which provoked the displeasure of God against Israel.
2. In His patience God may not as yet have made His displeasure felt by us in pains and ills seen to be traceable to it; and yet He may have sent sorrow, loss, hardships, intended to bring us to Himself; it is certain that He has faithfully forewarned us that for every unpardoned sin He will at some time bring us to judgment.
3. To escape in the evil day no way is offered, none is to be found, save the old way of humble, trusting repentance.
4. For those who thus come the door of His heart is wide open; expiation has already been provided; pardon will be instant and complete; and, while to lifes end many painful effects of sin may remain, these, in their case, will be changed to means of good, to chastisements whereby He wilt perfect us in His own image and for His everlasting kingdom.
5. The proof of our repentance and trust and acceptance will appear in prompt obedience, childlike thought of God as our God, and a heart ready, nay, eager to serve in any, however costly, service He may appoint. (Monday Club Sermons.)
The plague stayed
1. In this lesson we have, first, an account of the judgment: So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel; and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men. Here is judgment following repentance and confession. There are some sins which, though truly repented of and forgiven, still bring retributive consequences from which the transgressor cannot escape in this life. He must wear them as brands of condemnation set upon sin by Divine justice for his own and others good. These consequences, while they come in just retribution, are also sent in mercy as Gods barriers against the progress of sin. It is here affirmed that the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel. Plagues and pestilence have various national and physical causes. But it is equally plain that they are connected with the sins and follies of men. They are the penalties of violated law. In other words, they have a place in the righteous government of God, and so come to execute His will. Here the pestilence is attributed, instrumentally, to angelic agency.
2. This lesson furnishes an example of true penitence. Here is a case of genuine repentance which is accepted with God. Davids confession was not extorted from him by the pressure of the Divine judgment. Before it came he saw his sin, and said unto the Lord, I have sinned greatly in that I have done. Divine judgments are often, indeed, instrumental in arousing men to see the enormity of their guilt. They are used as goads to prick a dull and sleeping conscience. But true penitence is not the result of fear. It springs from seeing the hatefulness and wickedness of sin as done against the wisdom, justice, holiness and love of God. Sin is folly, and brings ruin to tile transgressor, but its chief enormity lies in the fact that it is done against a God of holiness and love. So true confession is confession to God.
3. This lesson also shows us how saving mercy was obtained for Israel. The judgment of God was righteously destroying the people, and His mercy, though free, sovereign and ready to save, could not ignore His righteousness. There must be a way opened for its manifestation if Jerusalem is saved. This is secured through the Divine appointment. David is directed by Gad, a prophet of the Lord, to build an altar unto the Lord, that the plague might be stayed from the people. It was not by Davids tears of penitence and confession of sin that the plague was stayed. In like manner, not our tears or prayers or confessions, but the blood of Christ shed for us, furnishes the only ground for the removal of the sentence of death which the broken law of God has passed upon us. He was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
4. This passage presents another feature of spiritual life worthy of attention. It is the spirit of generosity and unselfishness manifested by David in fulfilling the command of God. Here was royal liberality; and it is set down to his everlasting honour in the Word of God that he gave like a king. He stands before us as a noble representative of those large-hearted, generous men who are ever ready, when the occasion demands, to sacrifice their private interests for the public good. And never did David make a better investment of his means than when he bought Araunahs threshing-floor. It was the building-lot for the temple which for a thousand years prefigured Christ, and so became a fountain of blessing to the nations. Money invested in such a cause is not lost, but laid up in store for the life to come. (S. D. Niccolls, D. D.)
Gods judgment on pride
See the power of the angels, when God gives them commission, either to save or to destroy. Joab is nine months in passing with his pen, the angel but nine hours in passing with his sword, through all the coasts and corners of Israel. See how easily God can bring down the proudest sinners, and how much we owe daily to the Divine patience. Davids adultery is punished, for the present, only with the death of one infant, his pride with the death of all those thousands, so much does God hate pride. (M. Henry.)
Divine justice in national retributions
Famine, pestilence, revolution, war, are judgments of the Ruler of the world. What sort of a Ruler, we ask, is He? The answer to that question will determine the true sense of the term, a judgment of God. The heathen saw Him as a passionate, capricious, changeable Being, who could be angered and appeased by men. The Jewish prophets saw Him as a God whose ways were equal, who was unchangeable, whose decrees were perpetual, who was net to be bought off by sacrifices, but pleased by righteous dealing, and who would remove the punishment when the causes which brought it on were taken away; in their own words, when men repented God would repent. That does not mean that He changed His laws to relieve them of their suffering, but that they changed their relationship to His laws, so that, to them thus changed, God seemed to change. A boat rows against the stream; the current punishes it. So is a nation violating a law of God; it is subject to a judgment. The boat turns and goes with the stream; the current assists it. So is a nation which has repented and put itself into harmony with Gods law; it is subject to a blessing. But the current is the same; it has not changed, only the boat has changed its relationship to the current. Neither does God change--we change; and the same law which executed itself in punishment now expresses itself in reward. (G. Brooke.)
The pestilence
Death on the Pale Horse--the Black Death of mediaeval times (1848) in some one of divers forms, issued forth now. Appearing in the heat of the summer months, aggravated by the very greatness of the population which had occasioned the census, spreading with the rapidity of an Oriental disorder in crowded habitations, it flew from end to end of the country in three days. (Dean Stanley.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 a fixed time
a fixed time
This is the time God decided he would stop the plague.
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seventy thousand
"70,000" (See: Numbers)
from Dan to Beersheba
Here mentioning the city of Dan in the extreme north and the city Beersheba in the extreme south means the entire nation of Israel. (See: Merism)
the angel reached out with his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it
Here the metonym "hand" stands for the angel's power. AT: "the angel was about to destroy the people in Jerusalem" (See: Metonymy)
Yahweh changed his mind because of the harm
This means that Yahweh stopped the evil that he was allowing the angel to do. AT: "Yahweh felt grieved about the harm"
Now draw back your hand
The metonym "hand" stands for the angel's power. AT: "Do not harm them any longer" (See: Metonymy)
Araunah
This is the name of a man. (See: How to Translate Names)
the threshing floor
A threshing floor was a hard, flat surface where edible grain was separated from chaff.
translationWords
Israel
die
angel
mind
thresh
Jebus
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.