2 Samuel
Chapter 24
The Plague
Again, the anger of the Lord blazed out against Israel. So he let David harm them in this way:“Count the people of Israel and Judah.”
The king said to Joab and the commanders of the army who were with him: “Go through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and count the people that I may know how many they are.”
Joab told the king: “May the Lord your God multiply the people a hundred times, and may my lord the king see this blessing. But why does my lord the king want to take a census?”
But the king’s word prevailed so that Joab and the army commanders went out from the king’s presence to count the people of Israel.
They crossed the Jordan and started with Aroer, the city in the middle of the valley, and went on toward Gad and to Jazer.
Then they proceeded to Gilead and Kadesh in the land of the Hittites. They then went to Dan, from Dan to Sidon,
and arrived at the fortress of Tyre and the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites. They went out through the Negeb of Judah at Beersheba and,
after having gone through all the land, returned to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.
Joab gave the total count of the people to the king: eight hundred thousand sword-wielding warriors in Israel and five hundred thousand men in Judah.
But after he had the people counted, David felt remorse and said to the Lord: “I have sinned greatly in what I have done, but now, O Lord, I ask you to forgive my sin for I have acted foolishly.”
The following day, before David awoke, the Lord’s word had come to the prophet Gad, David’s seer:
“Go, and give David this message: I offer you three things, and I will let one of them befall you according to your own choice.”
So Gad asked David: “Do you want three years of famine in your land? Or do you want to be pursued for three months by your foes while you flee from them? Or do you want three days’ pestilence in your land? Now, think and decide what answer I shall give him who sent me.”
David answered Gad: “I am distraught. Let me fall into the hands of the Lord whose mercy is abundant, but let me not fall into human hands.”
So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel from morning until the appointed time, causing the death of seventy thousand men from Dan to Beersheba.
When the angel stretched forth his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord would punish no more and said to the angel destroying the people: “It is enough; hold back your hand.” The angel of the Lord was already on the threshing floor of Araunah, the Jebusite.
When David saw the angel striking the people, he spoke to the Lord and said: “I have sinned and acted wickedly, but these are only the sheep; what have they done? Let your hand strike me and my father’s family.”
Gad went to David that day and said: “Go, set up an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebu-site.”
So David left to follow the Lord’s command, as given through Gad.
When Araunah saw the king and his officials coming toward him, he paid homage to the king with his face to the ground and said:
“Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David answered: “I will buy your threshing floor to build an altar to the Lord so that the plague may end among the people.”
Then Araunah said to David: “Let my lord the king take the threshing floor and offer the sacrifice that seems good to him: here you have my oxen for the burnt offering, the threshing sleds, and the oxen’s yokes for the wood.
All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king. May the Lord your God hear you.”
But the king said to Araunah: “No, I will pay you for all this, for I will not offer to the Lord my God something that costs me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
David built an altar to the Lord and offered burnt and peace offerings. So the Lord had mercy on the land, and the plague ended in Israel.
Commentaries
The Plague.
It has three parts: the census (1-9), the plague (10-15), and the altar (16-25). The first part is administrative, the second divine, and the third worship-focused. These sections are well-structured, beginning with the plague itself, the census as its cause, and the altar as its remedy. It is clear that the plague is viewed as punishment from God: the Lord’s messenger strikes Sennacherib’s army with the plague, while the exterminator afflicts the Egyptians; famine, sword, plague, and wild animals make up the classic group of divine punishers. The plague, more than other disasters, terrified ancient people because of its rapid, uncontrollable spread, its swift execution regardless of age or social status, and the lack of understanding of its causes and nature, which lent it a sacred aura. It was seen as a demonic force or an executioner acting on behalf of a mysterious God.
In the Yahwist view (J), which recognizes only one God—at least for Israel—the plague cannot be caused by another divine enemy but must be under God’s control. That is why it strongly condemns sin or impurity, which must be addressed through atonement, appeasement, and confession. David admits his sin and builds an altar to stop divine anger. In his desire to emphasize God’s action, the writer complicates his story. The main point—the Lord’s sovereignty over all events, causes, effects, and remedies—is clear, but God’s ways of acting can be confusing. If everything had started with David’s sin, it would be easier to understand: after all, David acts as a mediator of both good and bad for his people. But verse 1 says that God incited David to sin to punish the people, who are assumed to be sinners at that time. The First Book of Chronicles (21:1) clarifies that it was Satan who incited David; Satan, the adversary of Israel and God’s plan. The early narrator does not try to explain God’s actions but accepts His mysterious holiness, recognizes His control over human motives, and describes His secret actions in human terms within history.