So the Lord sent a plague on Israel; seventy thousand men of Israel fell.
Parallel translations
- WEB So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell.
- KJV So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
- 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.
- 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 6:19He struck of the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into Yahweh’s ark, he struck fifty thousand seventy of the men. Then the people mourned, because Yahweh had struck the people with a great slaughter.
- 2 Kgs 19:35That night, Yahweh’s angel went out, and struck one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
- 1 Chr 27:24Joab the son of Zeruiah began to take a census, but didn’t finish; and wrath came on Israel for this. The number wasn’t put into the account in the chronicles of king David.
- Num 25:9Those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.
- Exod 12:30Pharaoh 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 16:46–49Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, and put fire from off the altar in it, and lay incense on it, and carry it quickly to the congregation, and make atonement for them; for wrath has gone out from Yahweh! The plague has begun.”
- 2 Sam 24:15So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning even to the appointed time; and seventy thousand men died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba.
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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