So 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 Beer-sheba seventy thousand men.
Read Chapter 24
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
And. Septuagint insert, "And David chose death, (the pestilence, as they usually render it; Salien). And it was the time of the wheat-harvest. And the Lord gave death in Israel, from morning till dinner-time. "(Haydock)
Appointed, for three days; though before the end of the last, God took pity on the people, ver 16. (Calmet)
Bo chart thinks the pestilence ceased to rage at some hour of the first day. Syriac and Arabic, "till the sixth hour."
Bring a yet graver charge against God and ask him why, when Esau and Jacob were still in the womb, he said, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.” Accuse him of injustice because, when Achan the son of Carmi stole part of the spoil of Jericho, he butchered so many thousands for the fault of one. Ask him why for the sin of the sons of Eli the people were well-nigh annihilated and the ark captured. And why, when David sinned by numbering the people, so many thousands lost their lives.… Why should Christ’s coming have been delayed to the last times? Why should he not have come before so vast a number had perished? Of this last question the blessed apostle in writing to the Romans most wisely disposes by admitting that he does not know and that only God does. Do you too, then, condescend to remain ignorant of that into which you inquire. Leave to God his power over what is his own; he does not need you to justify his actions. - "Letter 133.9"
