1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to
number Israel.
2 And
David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from
Beersheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it.
3 And
Joab answered, The LORD make his people an hundred times so many more as they be: but, my lord the king, are they
not all my lord's servants? why then doth my lord require this thing? why will
he be a cause of trespass to Israel?
4 Nevertheless
the king's word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed, and went
throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.
5 And
Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they of Israel
were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four
hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.
6 But
Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king's word was abominable
to Joab.
7 And
God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel.
8 And
David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing: but
now, I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very
foolishly.
9 And
the LORD spake unto Gad, David's seer, saying,
10 Go
and tell David, saying, Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto
thee.
11 So
Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Choose thee
12 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.
13 And
David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of
the LORD; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into
the hand of man.
14 So
the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand
men.
15 And
God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the
LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that
destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood
by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16 And
David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD stand between the earth
and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem.
Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their
faces.
17 And
David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded
the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed;
but as for these
sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be on
me, and on my father's house; but not on thy people, that they should be
plagued.
18 Then
the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up,
and set up an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
19 And
David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spake in the name of the LORD.
20 And
Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons with him hid
themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.
21 And
as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the
threshingfloor, and bowed himself to David with his face
to the ground.
22 Then
David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of this threshingfloor, that I may build an
altar therein unto the LORD: thou shalt grant it me for the full price: that
the plague may be stayed from the people.
23 And
Ornan said unto David, Take it to thee, and let my lord the king do that which is good
in his eyes: lo, I give thee the oxen also for
burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the
meat offering; I give it all.
24 And
king David said to Ornan, Nay; but I will verily buy it for the full price: for
I will not take that which is thine
for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings without cost.
25 So
David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight.
26 And
David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace
offerings, and called upon the LORD; and he answered him from heaven by fire
upon the altar of burnt offering.
27 And
the LORD commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath
thereof.
28 At
that time when David saw that the LORD had answered him in the threshingfloor
of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.
29 For
the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar
of the burnt offering, were at that season in the high place at
Gibeon.
30 But
David could not go before it to enquire of God: for he was afraid because of
the sword of the angel of the LORD.
