📖WEB · 1 Chronicles 21:13
What does 1 Chronicles 21:13 mean?
"David said to Gad, “I am in distress. Let me fall, I pray, into Yahweh’s hand; for his mercies are very great. Don’t let me fall into man’s hand.”"
— 1 Chronicles 21:13 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
“Go and speak to David, saying, ‘Yahweh says, “I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.”’”
So Gad came to David, and said to him, “Yahweh says, ‘Take your choice:
either three years of famine; or three months to be consumed before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three days the sword of Yahweh, even pestilence in the land, and Yahweh’s angel destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.’”
David said to Gad, “I am in distress. Let me fall, I pray, into Yahweh’s hand; for his mercies are very great. Don’t let me fall into man’s hand.”
So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell.
God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was about to destroy, Yahweh saw, and he relented of the disaster, and said to the destroying angel, “It is enough. Now withdraw your hand.” Yahweh’s angel was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
David lifted up his eyes, and saw Yahweh’s angel standing between earth and the sky, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.
Explanation
This verse comes from a moment of crisis in David's life, immediately after he has sinned by ordering a census of Israel—an act driven by pride and a reliance on military strength rather than trust in God. Once David recognizes his guilt, the prophet Gad delivers a message from the Lord offering David a choice of three punishments: three years of famine, three months of defeat and pursuit by enemies, or three days of plague sent directly by God's hand. Faced with
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