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.
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