2 Samuel 24:14

his mercies are great Cp. Psalms 51:1; and the reference to this passage in Sir 2:17-18 : "They that fear the Lord will prepare their hearts, and humble their souls in his sight, saying, We will fall into the hands of the Lord, and not into the hands of men: for as his majesty is, so is his mercy."

The Sept. adds at the close of the verse: "And David chose him the pestilence (lit. death). And it was the days of wheat harvest." War would place the nation at the mercy of its enemies: famine would make it dependent on corn-merchants, who might greatly aggravate the miseries of scarcity: only in the pestilence some form of plague sudden and mysterious in its attack, and baffling the medical knowledge of the time would the punishment come directly from God, and depend immediately upon His Will.