"How many years of famine: seven or three?" (Alleged Contradiction #E6885)
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 thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days’ pestilence in thy land? now advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.
II Samuel 24:13
So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Choose thee Either three years’ famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the LORD, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me.
I Chronicles 21:11-12
Response
Israel was in the fourth year of a famine already, 1 and so the punishment would be three additional years of famine, or seven total.
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Notes
- See II Samuel 21:1; by this time it was three years, plus another year before the prophet Gad came to David ↩