11 Before David got up the next morning, the word of the Lord had come to Gad the prophet, David's seer:
11 For when David was up in the morning, the word of the Lord came unto the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,
11 And when David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,
11 When David got up the next morning, the word of God had already come to Gad the prophet, David's spiritual advisor,
11 Now when David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,
11 The next morning the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, who was David's seer. This was the message:
9 The Lord said to Gad, David's seer,
9 And the Lord spake unto Gad, David's seer, saying,
9 And the Lord spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying,
9 God answered by speaking to Gad, David's pastor:
9 And the Lord spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying,
9 Then the Lord spoke to Gad, David's seer. This was the message:
David's numbering the people.
No mention is made in this book of David's sin in the matter of Uriah, neither of the troubles that followed it: they had no needful connexion with the subjects here noted. But David's sin, in numbering the people, is related: in the atonement made for that sin, there was notice of the place on which the temple should be built. The command to David to build an altar, was a blessed token of reconciliation. God testified his acceptance of David's offerings on this altar. Thus Christ was made sin, and a curse for us; it pleased the Lord to bruise him, that through him, God might be to us, not a consuming Fire, but a reconciled God. It is good to continue attendance on those ordinances in which we have experienced the tokens of God's presence, and have found that he is with us of a truth. Here God graciously met me, therefore I will still expect to meet him.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on 2 Samuel 24:11
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.