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 ." 15 So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time , and seventy thousand men of the people from Dan to Beersheba died . 16 When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the calamity and said to the angel who destroyed the people , "It is enough ! Now relax your hand !" And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite . 17 Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking down the people , and said , "Behold , it is I who have sinned , and it is I who have done wrong ; but these sheep , what have they done ? Please let Your hand be against me and against my father's house ."
18 So Gad came to David that day and said to him, " Go up, erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite ." 19 David went up according to the word of Gad , just as the Lord had commanded .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on 2 Samuel 24:11-19
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.
Commentary on 2 Samuel 24:16-17
(Read 2 Samuel 24:16-17)
Perhaps there was more wickedness, especially more pride, and that was the sin now chastised, in Jerusalem than elsewhere, therefore the hand of the destroyer is stretched out upon that city; but the Lord repented him of the evil, changed not his mind, but his way. In the very place where Abraham was stayed from slaying his son, this angel, by a like countermand, was stayed from destroying Jerusalem. It is for the sake of the great Sacrifice, that our forfeited lives are preserved from the destroying angel. And in David is the spirit of a true shepherd of the people, offering himself as a sacrifice to God, for the salvation of his subjects.
Commentary on 2 Samuel 24:18-25
(Read 2 Samuel 24:18-25)
God's encouraging us to offer to him spiritual sacrifices, is an evidence of his reconciling us to himself. David purchased the ground to build the altar. God hates robbery for burnt-offering. Those know not what religion is, who chiefly care to make it cheap and easy to themselves, and who are best pleased with that which costs them least pains or money. For what have we our substance, but to honour God with it; and how can it be better bestowed? See the building of the altar, and the offering proper sacrifices upon it. Burnt-offerings to the glory of God's justice; peace-offerings to the glory of his mercy. Christ is our Altar, our Sacrifice; in him alone we may expect to escape his wrath, and to find favour with God. Death is destroying all around, in so many forms, and so suddenly, that it is madness not to expect and prepare for the close of life.