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

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.

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 . 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, 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, , 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, . Object. If it continued three days, how is it said that God repented him of the evil, and stopped the angel in his course? . 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.

2 Samuel 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 Jeremiah 18:8; Jeremiah 18:10 Jonah 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. 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. 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. Sennert., De Febribus, lib. iv. cap. 15. Life of King Edward VI, by Sir John Heywood.

(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, 2 Samuel 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 1 Chronicles 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. Threshing-place.—Better, threshing-floor, as the same word is translated in 2 Samuel 24:18; 2 Samuel 24:21; 2 Samuel 24:24. Araunah the Jebusite.—The name is variously spelled, “Avarnah” (text), “Aranyah” (2 Samuel 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 (1 Chronicles 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.

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.

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 (2 Samuel 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. 1 Kings 18:29; 1 Kings 18:36; Daniel 9:21; Acts 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 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

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,