2 Samuel 24:11-19

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 2 Samuel 24:10-17

We have here David repenting of the sin and yet punished for it, God repenting of the judgment and David thereby made more penitent. I. Here is David's penitent reflection upon and confession of his sin in numbering the people. While the thing was in doing, during all those nine months, we do not find that David was sensible of his sin, for had he been so he would have countermanded the orders he had given; but, when the account was finished and laid before him, that very night his conscience... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 2 Samuel 24:18-25

Here is, I. A command sent to David to erect an altar in the place where he saw the angel, 2 Sam. 24:18. This was to intimate to David, 1. That, upon his repeated submission and humiliation, God was now thoroughly reconciled to him; for, if the Lord had been pleased to kill him, he would not have accepted an offering, and therefore would not have ordered him to build an altar. God's encouraging us to offer to him spiritual sacrifices is a comfortable evidence of his reconciling us to himself.... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Samuel 24:11

For when David was up in the morning ,.... Which it is probable was very early, he not being able to sleep through the distress of mind he was in; for the words should be rendered, "and David arose in the morning" F3 ויקם "et surrexit", Pagninus, Montanus, &c.; , for, as we render them, they seem to imply as if he had no sense of his sin before the prophet came to him next mentioned; whereas it was in the night he had been under the conviction of it, and had acknowledged it, and... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Samuel 24:12

Go, and say unto David ,.... Not my servant David, as Nathan was bid to say to him when it was in his heart to build an house for him, 2 Samuel 7:5 ; but now he had sinned and displeased the Lord, and therefore it is only plain David: thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three things ; or lay them before thee to consider of which thou wouldest have done; the Targum is,"one of three things I cast upon thee,'as a burden to bear; one of the three I will certainly inflict upon thee by way... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Samuel 24:13

So Gad came to David, and told him ,.... Said nothing to him about his sin, but correction for it; which confirms it that David was made sensible of his sin before he came to him: and said unto him, shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land ? in 1 Chronicles 21:12 , only "three years" are mentioned, and so the Septuagint version here; but Josephus F4 Antiqu. l. 7. c. 13. sect. 2. , the Targum, the Syriac and Arabic versions, have the number "seven"; three seems to be... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Samuel 24:14

And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait ,.... Not knowing well which to choose, each of them being so grievous, and an answer being to be returned immediately; but by his next words, and by the event, it seems he chose the pestilence, though that is not expressly said: let us fall now into the hand of the Lord ; the Targum in 1 Chronicles 21:13 , is"into the hand of the Word of the Lord:" (for his mercies are great), and let me not fall into the hand of men ; indeed all... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible 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,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Samuel 24:16

And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it ,.... Which, as it was perhaps the last place where the people were numbered, it was the last to which the plague came: this angel appeared in an human form, standing "between the earth and the heaven"; in the midst of the heaven, in the air, right over Jerusalem: "having a drawn sword in his hand stretched over the city"; as is said in 1 Chronicles 21:16 ; which was done as a menace, and to inject terror into David and... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Samuel 24:17

And David spake unto the Lord ,.... In prayer; he and the elders of Israel being clothed in sackcloth, and fallen on their faces, he prayed, not unto the angel, but to Jehovah that sent him; see 1 Chronicles 21:16 , when he saw the angel that smote the people ; in the air over Jerusalem, with a drawn sword in his hand, which made him appear terrible: and said, lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly ; in numbering the people: but these sheep, what have they done ? he looked... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Samuel 24:18

And Gad came that day to David ,.... Ordered and directed by the angel of the Lord, 1 Chronicles 21:18 , and said unto him, go up, rear an altar unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite : it was too far to go to Gibeon, where the tabernacle was, at such a time of extremity, when the sword of the angel was stretched out over Jerusalem, 1 Chronicles 21:29 ; and this was the most proper place, as it was the very spot over and nearest to which the angel was; and was... read more

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