Jump to a verse
2 Samuel 24:15–17, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
2 Samuel 24:15–17
Plague Kills Seventy Thousand before Relenting
Seventy thousand die from Dan to Beersheba
The LORD sends 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. The number is the unit's center, not a backdrop for the king's feelings. Seventy thousand dead must remain visible.
When the angel stretches out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD repents him of the evil and says to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand. The angel of the LORD is by the threshingplace of Araunah the Jebusite. Chronicles expands the scene; neither account may be used to make the dead disappear behind relenting.
David names the people as sheep once the angel is seen
David speaks when he sees the angel that smote the people: Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand be against me and against my father's house.
The plea is late and true as far as it goes: royal action, popular cost. Calling the people sheep acknowledges unequal suffering. It does not raise the seventy thousand, and it does not make remorse a sufficient substitute for their lives.
How this should shape us
After a leader's order exposes a population to mass harm, count the people affected, stop the continuing danger, and keep the ruler's responsibility—not only later tears—on the public record. Do not let an angel, an altar, or a confession become scenery that hides the dead.
Teach it back
Explain 2 Samuel 24:15–17 in your own words. Include its narrative movement, one source-supported detail, one material uncertainty, one person or cost power can obscure, and one use the context rules out.
Your explanation stays in this browser. It is not sent or saved.
Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Interpreters differ over source layers, chronology, historicity, characterization, textual readings, and whether the court story mainly legitimates, indicts, or holds David in sustained tension. The package states the received movement first and labels reconstructions.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
2 Samuel 24:15-17, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, repeated verbs, names, syntax, and the base text behind translation and textual discussion.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Sam.xml, 24:15-17
Supports: Unit-bounded wording, older-English clarification, textual witnesses, syntax, names, numbers, and major historical or literary notes actually printed for these verses.
NET Bible 2 Samuel PDF, printed pp. 582–583, translation and all translator notes attached to 24:15-17
Supports: Current publisher-visible controls for textual plurality, historical and archaeological limits, David's reception, political power, sexual violence, trauma, and the relationship with Kings and Chronicles; abstract-only chapters carry only their exposed claims.
Oxford Handbook of King David (2026), official Introduction pp. xxiii–xxvii and chapter 3 abstract and bibliographic record, pp. 37–53
Supports: One early-composition and historiographical-optimism proposal, literary structure, source integration, ethical poetics, and the limits of treating the proposal as consensus.
Garsiel, Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 10, article 5 (2010), complete open-access article pp. 1–42, especially the introduction and sections on composition, comparative structure, literary poetics, and historiographical value
Supports: Only the exposed proposal that 2 Samuel 24:16 is an interpolation and that 1 Chronicles 21 and 4Q51 reflect later readjustment; the full argument was not inspected.
Rofé, 'Writing, Interpolating and Editing: 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21 as a Case Study,' Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 3.3 (2014), pp. 317–326; official publisher abstract and bibliographic record only
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: 2 Samuel 24:15-17, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 2 Samuel
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, repeated verbs, names, syntax, and the base text behind translation and textual discussion.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Sam.xml, 24:15-17
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: 2 Samuel with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Unit-bounded wording, older-English clarification, textual witnesses, syntax, names, numbers, and major historical or literary notes actually printed for these verses.
Exact location: NET Bible 2 Samuel PDF, printed pp. 582–583, translation and all translator notes attached to 24:15-17
Open source ↗modern scholarly handbook limited access
The Oxford Handbook of King David
Edited by Mahri Leonard-Fleckman and Christine Mitchell
Oxford University Press, 2026
Supports: Current publisher-visible controls for textual plurality, historical and archaeological limits, David's reception, political power, sexual violence, trauma, and the relationship with Kings and Chronicles; abstract-only chapters carry only their exposed claims.
Exact location: Oxford Handbook of King David (2026), official Introduction pp. xxiii–xxvii and chapter 3 abstract and bibliographic record, pp. 37–53
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access scholarly article
The Book of Samuel: Its Composition, Structure and Significance as a Historiographical Source
Moshe Garsiel
Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 10, article 5, 2010; published online 2011
Supports: One early-composition and historiographical-optimism proposal, literary structure, source integration, ethical poetics, and the limits of treating the proposal as consensus.
Exact location: Garsiel, Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 10, article 5 (2010), complete open-access article pp. 1–42, especially the introduction and sections on composition, comparative structure, literary poetics, and historiographical value
Open source ↗peer reviewed scholarly article abstract
Writing, Interpolating and Editing: 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21 as a Case Study
Alexander Rofe
Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 3(3), pp. 317-326, 2014
Supports: Only the exposed proposal that 2 Samuel 24:16 is an interpolation and that 1 Chronicles 21 and 4Q51 reflect later readjustment; the full argument was not inspected.
Exact location: Rofé, 'Writing, Interpolating and Editing: 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21 as a Case Study,' Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 3.3 (2014), pp. 317–326; official publisher abstract and bibliographic record only
Open source ↗