Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
2 Samuel 24:13 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 13. 13So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days’ pestilence in thy land? now advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
The KJV and Masoretic text offer seven years of famine, while the Greek tradition and 1 Chronicles offer three; the choice scene has a material numerical variant.
Read It With
- 2 Samuel 24:10–14
Read 2 Samuel 24:13 with 24:10–14. The wording “So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come…” supplies one step in the thought unit through its next reported action, speech, or consequence; the surrounding verses supply the causes, responses, and outcome summarized here: David's conscience strikes after the count, Gad offers famine, flight, or plague, and David chooses to fall into the LORD's mercy rather than human hands.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Within “David Confesses and Chooses among Three Judgments,” 2 Samuel 24:13 advances the thought unit through its next reported action, speech, or consequence through the wording “So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come….” Its placement is governed by this reviewed relationship: 2 Samuel 24:1–9 establishes this prior movement: The LORD's anger and incitement open the chapter, David commands a military count, Joab objects, and the officers traverse the land before reporting totals. 2 Samuel 24:10–14 responds to the pressure already established; that demonstrated relationship, rather than sequence alone, explains its placement.
Follow the Context
- Opening movement: David's conscience strikes after the count, Gad offers famine, flight, or plague.
- Developing movement or outcome: David chooses to fall into the LORD's mercy rather than human hands.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come…”
In plain language: The KJV and Masoretic text offer seven years of famine, while the Greek tradition and 1 Chronicles offer three; the choice scene has a material numerical variant.
2 Samuel 24:13 advances the thought unit through its next reported action, speech, or consequence by recording “So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come….” This line matters because the KJV and Masoretic text offer seven years of famine, while the Greek tradition and 1 Chronicles offer three; the choice scene has a material numerical variant.
Why it matters: This wording carries a material textual, literary, historical, royal-power, violence, consent, trauma, covenant, reception, or misuse boundary.
How certain? probableWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
2 Samuel 24:13 does not permit the wording “So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come…” to be read apart from the selected verse's context. This narrative line does not make ordinary people expendable for a ruler's decision, turn mass death into scenery, or supply a reusable formula for identifying the cause of disaster.
What Remains True
Power remains accountable for the people it exposes, takes, silences, injures, or kills; truthful memory keeps their bodies, testimony, agency, and cost visible. In this unit, that truth is tested by the concrete movement: David's conscience strikes after the count, Gad offers famine, flight, or plague, and David chooses to fall into the LORD's mercy rather than human hands. In 2 Samuel 24:13, the concrete line “So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come…” keeps that truth accountable to the narrated evidence.
How It Can Shape Life
- The evidence to keep visible in this verse is “So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come….” When authority exposes people to violence, preserve evidence, protect those at risk, require independent lawful review, and refuse retaliation, euphemism, collective blame, or celebration of the harm. This response follows from the unit's own pattern—David's conscience strikes after the count, Gad offers famine, flight, or plague, and David chooses to fall into the LORD's mercy rather than human hands.
Teach It Back
Explain 2 Samuel 24:13's role in 24:10–14. Paraphrase “So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come…”, name the ancient royal or household horizon, state one material uncertainty, keep one vulnerable or affected person visible, and identify one conclusion the verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read 2 Samuel 24:10–14 — David Confesses and Chooses among Three JudgmentsSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
Do not claim more certainty than this verse permits: The KJV and Masoretic text offer seven years of famine, while the Greek tradition and 1 Chronicles offer three; the choice scene has a material numerical variant.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
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 24:10-14, 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, 24:10-14
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 24:10-14
Open source ↗