Was David offered seven years of famine or three?

The likeliest answer is that a copyist slipped in 2 Samuel, and that Gad said three years. The oldest translation of Samuel, the Greek Septuagint, reads ‘three years’ in 2 Samuel 24:13, agreeing with Chronicles. Three also fits the shape of the offer: three years, three months or three days, each punishment shorter and sharper than the one before. Adam Clarke took ‘seven’ to be a scribe’s misreading of one letter-numeral for another. Many modern translations, such as the NIV, ESV and BSB, follow the Greek and print ‘three’ in 2 Samuel 24:13.

The slip, if it is one, is old: the Latin Vulgate and, according to Gill, the Targum and the Syriac read seven with the Hebrew. That is why some Christians prefer the explanation below, which keeps both numbers. On either view the story is the same: David turned down famine and flight and chose to “fall now into the hand of the Lord; for his mercies are great” (2 Samuel 24:14).

Seven years in all

John Gill points out that there had already been three years of famine (2 Samuel 21:1), and he counts the year then running as a fourth, so that three more years would make seven in all. On this reading Samuel gives the whole length of the famine David faced and Chronicles the three new years, so both numbers are right.

Two messages

Others suggest that Gad came twice: first with a question about seven years (Samuel’s “Shall seven years of famine come unto thee”), then with the Lord’s formal offer of three (Chronicles’ “Thus saith the Lord, Choose thee”), the term perhaps shortened after David’s repentance.

Keil and Delitzsch thought ‘seven’ the original reading in Samuel, because a scribe was more likely to make an odd number fit the pattern of threes than to spoil it. Christian scholars remain divided between the copyist explanation and the ‘seven in all’ reading.