So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
Parallel translations
- WEB So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell.
- BSB So the LORD sent a plague upon Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead.
- NKJV So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell.
- NASB So the Lord sent a plague on Israel; seventy thousand men of Israel fell.
- NLT So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel, and 70,000 people died as a result.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The Lord sends a pestilence and seventy thousand Israelites die. It shows the gravity of the judgment for David's sin.
Overview
A devastating plague falls, claiming seventy thousand men. The heavy toll underscores how sin, even one man's, brings widespread suffering, and how seriously God regards it. Yet, as the next verses show, judgment is met by mercy, foreshadowing the place where atonement will be made.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- 1 Sam 6:19And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.
- 2 Kgs 19:35And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
- 1 Chr 27:24Joab the son of Zeruiah began to number, but he finished not, because there fell wrath for it against Israel; neither was the number put in the account of the chronicles of king David.
- Num 25:9And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand.
- Exod 12:30And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead.
- Num 16:46–49And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from the LORD; the plague is begun.
- 2 Sam 24:15So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The genealogies and the everlasting covenant with David trace the single thread of promise running through the generations straight to the Christ in whom the line reaches its goal.
How 1 Chronicles 21:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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