10 Now David's heart troubled him after e he had numbered the people . So David said to the Lord , " I have sinned greatly in what I have done . But now , O Lord , please take away the iniquity of Your servant , for I have acted very foolishly ." 11 When David arose in the morning , the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad , David's seer , saying , 12 "Go and speak to David , 'Thus the Lord says , "I am offering you three things ; choose for yourself one of them, which I will do to you.""' 13 So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, "Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land ? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days' pestilence in your land ? Now consider and see what answer I shall return to Him who sent me." 14 Then David said to Gad , "I am in great distress . Let us now fall into the hand of the Lord for His mercies are great , but do not let me fall into the hand of man ."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on 2 Samuel 24:10-14
Commentary on 2 Samuel 24:10-15
(Read 2 Samuel 24:10-15)
It is well, when a man has sinned, if he has a heart within to smite him for it. If we confess our sins, we may pray in faith that God would forgive them, and take away, by pardoning mercy, that sin which we cast away by sincere repentance. What we make the matter of our pride, it is just in God to take from us, or make bitter to us, and make it our punishment. This must be such a punishment as the people have a large share in, for though it was David's sin that opened the sluice, the sins of the people all contributed to the flood. In this difficulty, David chose a judgment which came immediately from God, whose mercies he knew to be very great, rather than from men, who would have triumphed in the miseries of Israel, and have been thereby hardened in their idolatry. He chose the pestilence; he and his family would be as much exposed to it as the poorest Israelite; and he would continue for a shorter time under the Divine rebuke, however severe it was. The rapid destruction by the pestilence shows how easily God can bring down the proudest sinners, and how much we owe daily to the Divine patience.