And Jehovah giveth a pestilence in Israel, and there fall of Israel seventy thousand men,

So the Lord sent disease on Israel, causing the death of seventy thousand men.

So the Lord . . . sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it--The infliction only of the pestilence is here noticed, without any account of its duration or its ravages, while a minute description is given of the visible appearance and menacing attitude of the destroying angel.

There fell, &c. - He was proud of the number of his people, but God took a course to make them fewer. Justly is that we are proud of so, taken from us, or embittered to us.