719 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And came to the strong hold of Tyre,.... That is, old Tyre, which stood thirty furlongs from new Tyre, the island (y); of which [See comments on Isaiah 23:1]; this must be understood of the parts near unto it; for that itself was not within the land of Israel, and so its inhabitants not to be numbered: and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
So when they had gone through all the land,.... Beginning at the east, and from thence to the north, and then going about to the west, came to the south, which finished their circuit: they came to Jerusalem, at the end of nine months and twenty days: they were ten months wanting ten days in numbering the people; in which they seem to have been...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the people unto the king,.... Having collected from the several captains employed in this work their several particular numbers, he put them together, and gave in the sum total to David: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword; though many of them might be under the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And David's heart smote him, after that had numbered the people,.... For nine or ten months his conscience lay asleep, but now the thing was done, it is awakened, and accuses him for it, and he repents of it; now he began to see the pride and haughtiness of his heart; his vanity and confidence in the creature, which led him to it; aggravated by...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For when David was up in the morning,.... Which it is probable was very early, he not being able to sleep through the distress of mind he was in; for the words should be rendered, "and David arose in the morning" (c), for, as we render them, they seem to imply as if he had no sense of his sin before the prophet came to him next mentioned; whereas...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Go, and say unto David,.... Not my servant David, as Nathan was bid to say to him when it was in his heart to build an house for him, 2 Samuel 7:5; but now he had sinned and displeased the Lord, and therefore it is only plain David: thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three [things]; or lay them before thee to consider of which thou wouldest have...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
So Gad came to David, and told him,.... Said nothing to him about his sin, but correction for it; which confirms it that David was made sensible of his sin before he came to him: and said unto him, shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? in 1 Chronicles 21:12, only "three years" are mentioned, and so the Septuagint version here;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait,.... Not knowing well which to choose, each of them being so grievous, and an answer being to be returned immediately; but by his next words, and by the event, it seems he chose the pestilence, though that is not expressly said: let us fall now into the hand of the Lord; the Targum in 1 Chronicles...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel,.... Upon the land of Israel, the people of the land, directly employing an angel to go through the coasts of it, and empowering him to inflict a pestilential disease: from the morning even to the time appointed: from the morning the prophet Gad came to David with a message from the Lord; that very morning...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it,.... Which, as it was perhaps the last place where the people were numbered, it was the last to which the plague came: this angel appeared in an human form, standing "between the earth and the heaven"; in the midst of the heaven, in the air, right over Jerusalem: "having a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And David spake unto the Lord,.... In prayer; he and the elders of Israel being clothed in sackcloth, and fallen on their faces, he prayed, not unto the angel, but to Jehovah that sent him; see 1 Chronicles 21:16; when he saw the angel that smote the people; in the air over Jerusalem, with a drawn sword in his hand, which made him appear terrible:...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Gad came that day to David,.... Ordered and directed by the angel of the Lord, 1 Chronicles 21:18; and said unto him, go up, rear an altar unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite: it was too far to go to Gibeon, where the tabernacle was, at such a time of extremity, when the sword of the angel was stretched out over...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And David, according to the saying of Gad, went up as the Lord commanded. From the place where he was in a lower part of the city to Mount Moriah, on which was the threshing floor, a place fit for winnowing corn when threshed.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Araunah looked,.... Peeped up out of the place in which he had hid himself with his four sons, for fear of the angel, and which they saw, 1 Chronicles 21:20; and saw the king and his servants coming towards him; he perceived, by the course they steered, that they were coming to him: and Araunah went out; of the threshingfloor, out of the place...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Araunah said, wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant?.... Which both implies admiration in him, that so great a person should visit him in his threshingfloor; that a king should come to a subject his servant, who should rather have come to him, and would upon the least intimation; it was a piece of condescension he marvelled at; and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Araunah said unto David, let my lord the king take and offer up what [seemeth] good unto him,.... Build an altar, offer sacrifices of whatsoever he found upon the premises fit for the same, and make use of whatever came to hand proper to perform such service with, as follows: behold, [here be] oxen for burnt sacrifice: which were employed in...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
All these [things] did Araunah, [as] a king, give unto the king,.... The note of similitude as is not in the text; from whence some have thought he was king of the Jebusites before Jerusalem was taken out of their hands, or however was of the royal race, perhaps the son and heir of the then king at that time; or he has this title given him,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the king said unto Araunah, nay, but I will surely buy [it] of thee at a price,.... And a full price too, 1 Chronicles 21:24; that is, give him as much for it as it was worth: neither will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing; which shows an ingenuous spirit, and contrary to the temper of many, who like...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And David built there an altar unto the Lord,.... After he had made the purchase: and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings; the one to expiate the sin or sins committed, the other to give thanks for the intimation given, that the plague would be stayed upon this: so the Lord was entreated for the land; was pacified and prevailed upon to...