2 Samuel 24:15
ESV
So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning until the appointed time. And there died of the people from Dan to Beersheba 70,000 men.
NIV
So the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died.
NASB
So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand men of the people from Dan to Beersheba died.
CSB
So the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the appointed time, and from Dan to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men died.
NLT
So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel that morning, and it lasted for three days. A total of 70,000 people died throughout the nation, from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south.
KJV
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.
NKJV
So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel from the morning till the appointed time. From Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand men of the people died.
What does 2 Samuel 24:15 mean?
For an unknown reason, God is angry with Israel. To punish them, God incited David to take a census of the reserve fighting men (2 Samuel 24:1). David told Joab, "Go through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba" (2 Samuel 24:2). Joab and the other regular military commanders knew this was a horrible idea and pushed back, but David insisted.After about ten months, they returned with the results. As traditionally translated, these are more than a million in the northern tribes and nearly a half-million men in Judah. For reasons unknown, Joab withheld the number of Levites and Benjaminites and told David the northern tribes only had about 80 percent of the actual number (2 Samuel 24:3–9; 1 Chronicles 21:5–6). It should be noted that the Hebrew word 'eleph can mean "thousand," but is also used for "clan," or "division." Whether a thousand divisions, or a million men, David's error and God's response are the same.
As soon as David heard the numbers, he realized his sin. No reason is given for this sudden turnaround. He repented, and God gave him a choice of punishments: three years of famine, three months of fleeing from his enemies, or three days of plague. David rejected war because God is more merciful than man, and God chose the plague (2 Samuel 24:10–14).
Like the census, the plague spreads "from Dan to Beersheba." Dan is a town in the far northwest corner of the eastern half-tribe of Manasseh. Beersheba is the last major city in the Negev in the south. The angel who is spreading the plague takes only three days to cover the terrain the generals took nearly ten months.
But, like Joab, God doesn't cover the entirety of the nation. He tells the angel of pestilence to stop when he reaches the top of Mt. Moriah, above Jerusalem. When David sees him, he and the elders, dressed in sackcloth, fall on their faces in repentance. God halts the plague.
It's unclear what form the "pestilence" takes. The NIV calls it a plague in the land, but 2 Samuel 24:16 reveals that this killing disease. Even if this disaster has a natural component and bodily effect, its behavior and spread are clearly supernatural. God is administering it directly, with the text evoking a sword-bearing angel.
The tally of men killed in the plague is subject to the same questions about translation as other in the Old Testament. The number 70,000 isn't necessarily tied to the number of fighting men. "Seven" is often used by God to mark completion. After six days of creation, God rested on the seventh (Genesis 2:2–3). When Joshua and Israel reached Jericho, they marched around it seven days, and on the seventh day, they marched seven times (Joshua 6:3–4). Daniel prophesied "seventy sevens," or seventy sets of seven years, and the last, the tribulation will last seven years (Daniel 9:24). And the seal, trumpet, and bowl judgments during tribulation will come in sets of seven.
David is right that God is merciful. God could have continued the plague through Jerusalem, but what had been done was already enough to complete the judgment.
