2Sa 24:10-13 | Clarke | STEP | Verse 10 David said - I have sinned greatly - We know not exactly in what this sin consisted. I have already hinted, , that probably David now began to covet an extension of empire, and purposed to unite some of the neighboring states with his own; and having, through the suggestions of Satan or some other adversary, (for so the word implies), given way to this covetous disposition, he could not well look to God for help, and therefore wished to know whether the thousands of Israel and Judah might be deemed equal to the conquests which he meditated. When God is offended and refuses assistance, vain is the help of man.

2 Samuel 24:10-13

Verse 10

David said - I have sinned greatly - We know not exactly in what this sin consisted. I have already hinted, 2Sam 24:1, that probably David now began to covet an extension of empire, and purposed to unite some of the neighboring states with his own; and having, through the suggestions of Satan or some other adversary, (for so the word implies), given way to this covetous disposition, he could not well look to God for help, and therefore wished to know whether the thousands of Israel and Judah might be deemed equal to the conquests which he meditated. When God is offended and refuses assistance, vain is the help of man. Verse 11

For when David was up - It is supposed that David's contrition arose from the reproof given by Gad, and that in the order of time the reproof came before the confession stated in the 10th verse.

David's seer - A holy man of God, under the Divine influence, whom David had as a domestic chaplain. Verse 13

Shall seven years of famine - In 1Chr 21:12, the number is three, not seven; and here the Septuagint has three, the same as in Chronicles: this is no doubt the true reading, the letter ז zain, Seven, being mistaken for ג gimel, Three. A mistake of this kind might be easily made from the similarity of the letters.