What Does 2 Samuel 24:15 Mean in the King James?

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.

2 Samuel 24:15 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The Hebrew verb for “sent” is shalach, which carries the sense of sending forth and releasing, so the verse places the pestilence directly under the LORD’s agency.

THE MEANING

The verse names the LORD as the sender of pestilence through Israel, from morning until the appointed time, and counts seventy thousand dead from Dan to Beer-sheba. Its measured span does not soften the violence: the full reach and the death toll stand together in one sentence.

THE ROOT

וַיִּשְׁלַח

vayyishlach

GROWS FROM

שלח

Send, send forth, release, or let go.

English “sent” can sound like mere motion, while ⁨שלח⁩ also carries the sense of sending forth or releasing. Here the LORD is explicitly the sender and pestilence is what is sent, placing agency directly inside the verse.

ALSO GROWS

shalach: To send or send forth.

שָׁלַח

This is the verb used in the verse: the pestilence is sent into Israel.

shilleach: To send away, dismiss, or release.

שִׁלֵּחַ

This form makes visible the root’s release sense, which gives added force to the account of pestilence moving through the land.

shaliach: A messenger or emissary; one who is sent.

שָׁלִיחַ

The noun preserves the root’s sense of something sent under an agent’s authority.

מוֹעֵד

mo'ed

GROWS FROM

יעד

Appoint or designate; set a time or meeting.

“Time appointed” carries the sense of a designated time, not just an unspecified stretch of hours. The verse marks the pestilence’s duration with a stated endpoint while leaving the death toll fully visible.

ALSO GROWS

ya'ad: To appoint or designate.

יָעַד

This verb names the act of setting a time, which gives “appointed” its sense of a marked boundary.

mo'adim: Appointed times; seasons.

מוֹעֲדִים

This plural preserves the sense of times set apart or designated, echoing the verse’s bounded interval.

THE PATTERN

Scripture narrates divine judgment through death named plainly and, where given, counted directly.

And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.

Exodus 12:29 · KJVThe verse states the LORD’s action and names the deaths across every level of the land.

Now they that died in the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred, beside them that died about the matter of Korah.

Numbers 16:49 · KJVThe plague’s human cost is given as a number, without disguising the deaths.

And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.

Acts 12:23 · KJVThe verse presents judgment as bodily death and describes its consequence directly.

THE THREAD

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

Genesis 1:14 · KJV

The word translated “seasons” is ⁨מוֹעֲדִים⁩, from the same ⁨יעד⁩ family as “appointed” in this verse. The connection presents the duration here as a designated time with a stated boundary.

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