2 Samuel 24:13

seven years of famine The reading of the Sept. and Chron. is three years, and this is unquestionably to be preferred, as required by the symmetry of the statement. Famine, war, and pestilence are three of Jehovah's four sore judgments (Ezekiel 14:21). Two of them David had already experienced. Note the expanded form in which Gad's speech is given in 1 Chronicles 21:12, especially the representation of the pestilence as "the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel."

advise Lit. know or consider. Advise, like advise thyselfin 1 Chronicles 21:12 means reflector considerSo Milton, Par. Lost, II. 376:

Advise, if this be worth

Attempting.