Verse Lens · Concise explanation

2 Samuel 24:14 Explained in Context

Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.

Selected verse

Verse 14. And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man.

King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions

Quick Meaning

This verse closes the thought unit with its stated result or transition: “And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand….” Its responsible meaning belongs to the complete movement “David Confesses and Chooses among Three Judgments.”

Read It With

  • 2 Samuel 24:10–14

Read 2 Samuel 24:14 with 24:10–14. The wording “And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand…” supplies one closing in the thought unit with its stated result or transition; 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 24:14 closes the thought unit with its stated result or transition through the wording “And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand….” 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.

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 24:14, the concrete line “And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand…” keeps that truth accountable to the narrated evidence.

How It Can Shape Life

  • The evidence to keep visible in this verse is “And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand….” 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.

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 Judgments
Sources used for this Verse Lens

How certain is this explanation? strong

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 ↗
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