2 Samuel 24:14 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
2 Samuel 24:14
And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man.
to fall · verb, qal infinitive construct, 1st person common plural
hand
בְיַדve.yad-
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct
LORD
יְהוָה֙Yah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
mercies
רַֽחֲמָ֔יוra.cha.mo
H7356
compassion (in the plural) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
great
רַבִּ֣יםra.Bim
H7227
abundant (in quantity · adjective, masculine plural absolute
fall
אֶפֹּֽלָה'e.Po.lah
H5307
to fall · verb, qal infinitive construct, 1st person common singular
hand
וּבְיַדu.ve.yad-
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · conjunction + preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct
man
אָדָ֖ם'a.Dam
H120
ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 119:156 Great are thy tender mercies, O LORD: quicken me according to thy judgments.
Psalms 51:1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
1 Chronicles 21:13 And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very great are his mercies: but let me not f…
Jonah 4:2 And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before un…
Psalms 86:15 But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.
Psalms 103:8-14 The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
Psalms 106:41-42 And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over them.
Psalms 130:4 But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on 2 Samuel 24:14
David said, . . . Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord--His overwhelming sense of his sin led him to acquiesce in the punishment denounced, notwithstanding its apparent excess of severity. He proceeded on a good principle in choosing the pestilence. In pestilence he was equally exposed, as it was just and right he should be, to danger as his people, whereas, in war and famine, he possessed means of protection superior to them. Besides, he thereby showed his trust, founded on long experience, in the divine goodness.
Adam Clarke on 2 Samuel 24:14
I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the Lord - David acted nobly in this business. Had he chosen war, his own personal safety was in no danger, because there was already an ordinance preventing him from going to battle. Had he chosen famine, his own wealth would have secured his and his own family's support. But he showed the greatness of his mind in choosing the pestilence, to the ravages of which himself and household were exposed equally with the meanest of his subjects.
John Gill on 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 the three judgments mentioned are by the hand of the Lord whenever they come; but in the pestilence the hand of the Lord is more visible, it coming immediately from his hand, as especially this was to do, and did; it di…
David's heart, i.e., his conscience, smote him, after he had numbered the people, or had given orders for the census to be taken. Having now come to a knowledge of his sin, he prayed to the Lord for forgiveness, because he had acted foolishly. The sin consisted chiefly in the self-exaltation which had led to this step (see the introductory remarks).
Sa2 24:11-13
When he rose up in the morning, after he had calmly reflected upon the matter during the night upon his bed, and had been brought to see the folly of his determination, the prophet Gad came to him by the command of God, pointed out to him his fault, and foretold the punishment that would come from God. "Shall seven years of famine co…
The Church Fathers
And again, David, after he had commanded the people to be numbered, was smitten in heart, and said to the Lord: "I have sinned exceedingly, because I have commanded this, and now, O Lord, take away the iniquity of Thy servant, for I have transgressed exceedingly." And the prophet Nathan was sent again to him, to offer him the choice of three things, that he should select the one he chose—famine in the land for three years, or that he should flee for three months before his enemies, or mortal pestilence in the land for three days. And David answered: "These three things are a great strait to me, but let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for very many are His mercies, and let me not fall into the hands of man." Now his fault was that he desired to know the number of the whole of the people which was with him, which knowledge he ought to have left to God alone. And, we are told, when death came upon the people, on the very first day at dinner time, when David saw the angel smiting the people, he said: "I have sinned, and I, the shepherd, have done wickedly, and this flock, what hath it done? Let Thine hand be upon me, and upon my father's house." And so it repented the Lord, and He commanded the angel to spare the people, and David to offer a sacrifice, for sacrifices were then offered for sins; sacrifices are now those of penitence. And so by that humbling of himself he became more acceptable to God, for it is no matter of wonder that a man should sin, but this is reprehensible, if he does not recognize that he has erred, and humble himself before God.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
David — Beloved, the eighth and youngest son of Jesse, a citizen of Bethlehem. His father seems to have been a man in humble life. His mother’s name is not recorded. Some think she was the Nahash of 2 Sam.…
Gad — Fortune; luck. (1.) Jacob’s seventh son, by Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid, and the brother of Asher (Gen. 30:11-13; 46:16, 18). In the Authorized Version of 30:11 the words, “A troop cometh: and she…
Temptation — (1.) Trial; a being put to the test. Thus God “tempted [Gen. 22: 1; R.V., ‘did prove’] Abraham;” and afflictions are said to tempt, i.e., to try, men (James 1:2, 12; comp. Deut. 8:2), putting their…
Contingencies · IN DIVINE GOVERNMENT OF MAN — IN DIVINE GOVERNMENT OF MAN
Nation · Involved in sins of rulers — Involved in sins of rulers
Plague · .On account of David’s sin — .On account of David’s sin
Resignation · EXEMPLIFIED — EXEMPLIFIED
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
David had already experienced the first two options—fleeing from Saul and Absalom, and famine because Saul had murdered the Gibeonites (21:1). While three days of severe plague sounded less traumatic, 70,000 people perished (24:15).
Rashi on 2 Samuel 24:14
I am in great anguish. The least of them is very difficult.
Let us fall into the hand of Adonoy. I.e. Pestilence20Controlled exclusively by God. and not the sword nor famine because it [famine] is also controlled by the rich who have store houses of produce. Rabbi Alexandri said, Dovid reasoned, "If I choose the sword then [the people of] Yisroel will say [about me], 'he is relying on his strength to save himself from death but others will die', and if I choose famine they will say, He is relying on his wealth [to save himself]. I will choose pestilence against which everyone is equal."21Midrash Tehilim 17:4.
