Great Moral Lessons from the Bible


2 Samuel 24:10-25 (Emphasis added.)

And David said unto HaShem [literally, "The Name," that is, Yahweh]: 'I have sinned greatly in what I have done; but now, O HaShem, put away, I beseech Thee, the iniquity of Thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.' [Among his sins, David committed adultery with Bathsheba, impregnating her, and then had her husband, Uriah, sent to a battlefront where he was killed so David could hide and sin and marry her.]

And when David rose up in the morning, the word of HaShem came unto the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying:

'Go and speak unto David: Thus saith HaShem: I lay upon thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.'

So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him: 'Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thy foes while they pursue thee? or shall there be three days' pestilence in thy land? now advise thee, and consider what answer I shall return to Him that sent Me.'

And David said unto Gad: 'I am in a great strait; let us fall now into the hand of HaShem; for His mercies are great; and let me not fall into the hand of man.'

So HaShem 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.

And when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, HaShem repented Him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people: 'It is enough; now stay thy hand.' And the angel of HaShem was by the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

And David spoke unto HaShem when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said: 'Lo, I have sinned, and I have done iniquitously; but these sheep, what have they done? let Thy hand, I pray Thee, be against me, and against my father's house.'

...

And David built there an altar unto HaShem, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings. So HaShem was entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.

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