2 Chronicles 21:14 - Exposition

A great plague; Hebrew, מַגֵּפָה , Out of the twenty-six occurrences of this word, it is rendered (Authorized Version) twenty-three times by the word "plague," twice by the word "slaughter" ( 2 Samuel 17:9 ; 2 Samuel 18:7 ), and once "stroke" ( Ezekiel 24:16 ). It is not the word ( גֶגַע ) which about sixty times (chiefly in Leviticus)describes the physical plague, but both of the words are applied to the plagues, e.g. of Pharaoh, and to the suffering that came of any severe smiting of the people. As no physical affliction in the shape of disease visited, so far as we know, the people, wives , and children of the king, and as his goods are reckoned in for the great plague, the general opinion is probably the correct one, that the invasions spoken of ( 2 Chronicles 21:16 , 2 Chronicles 21:17 ) fulfilled the punishment now announced.