Bible Strands
1 Chronicles 21:14
So the LORD sent a plague upon Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — David has just chosen to fall into the hands of the Lord rather than into the hands of men after being confronted by Gad for taking a census. The narrative shifts from David's plea to the immediate execution of divine judgment.
The words — The Hebrew verb וַיִּתֵּן (va/yi.tten) means "he put" or "he sent," applied to Yahweh placing a דֶּבֶר (de.ver, pestilence) upon Israel. The text records that seventy thousand (שִׁבְעִים אֶלֶף) men fell (וַיִּפּוֹל) dead.
The thread — This plague event parallels other divine judgments in Exodus 12:30 and Numbers 25:9, while the mechanism of stopping it aligns with the intercessory halt described in Numbers 16:48.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that divine judgment follows specific transgressions and that mercy operates within the bounds of sovereign authority. It asks the reader to acknowledge the reality of consequences while resting in the stated scope of divine control.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
So the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
Cross-references
- Exodus 12:30 During the night Pharaoh got up—he and all his officials and all the Egyptians—and there was loud wailing in Egypt; for there was no house without someone dead.
- Numbers 16:46 Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, place fire from the altar in it, and add incense. Go quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, because wrath has come out from the LORD; the plague has begun.”
- Numbers 25:9 but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.
- 1 Samuel 6:19 But God struck down some of the people of Beth-shemesh because they looked inside the ark of the LORD. He struck down seventy men, and the people mourned because the LORD had struck them with a great slaughter.
- 2 Samuel 24:15 So the LORD sent a plague upon Israel from that morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died.
- 2 Kings 19:35 And that very night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!
- 1 Chronicles 27:24 Joab son of Zeruiah began to count the men but did not finish. For because of this census wrath came upon Israel, and the number was not entered in the Book of the Chronicles of King David.