8. put away ... the iniquity] Render perhaps, remove the punishment; compare Genesis iv. 13, Revised Version with margin: also 1 Samuel xxviii. 10.
⁹And the Lord spake unto Gad, David’s seer, saying,
9. And the Lord spake] The historian now retraces his steps to describe the circumstances which heralded the approach of the plague.
Gad] He is three times mentioned in Chronicles, each time as a “seer,” viz. xxi. 9 (= 2 Samuel xxiv. 11); xxix. 29; 2 Chronicles xxix. 25. He was perhaps an older contemporary of Nathan, who bears the more modern title of “prophet” (compare 1 Samuel ix. 9).
¹⁰Go and speak unto David, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I offer[¹] thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. ¹¹So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Take which thou wilt;
[¹] Hebrew stretch out unto.
10. I offer thee three things] The offer is a test of David’s character, just as God’s different offer in 2 Chronicles i. 7 was a test of Solomon’s.
¹²either three years of famine; or three months to be consumed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the Lord, even[¹] pestilence in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him that sent me.
[¹] Or, and.
12. three years of famine] 2 Samuel, seven years of famine (LXX. however three, as Chronicles).