1And Satan stood up against Israel , and moved David to number Israel . 2And David said to Joab and to the princes of the people , Go , number Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan ; and bring me word, that I may know the sum of them . 3And Joab said, Jehovah make his people a hundred times as many as they are : but , my lord the king , are they not all my lord ’s servants ? why doth my lord require this thing ? why will he be a cause of guilt unto Israel ? 4Nevertheless the king ’s word prevailed against Joab . Wherefore Joab departed , and went throughout all Israel , and came to Jerusalem . 5And Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people unto David . And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and a hundred thousand men that drew sword : and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword . 6But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them ; for the king ’s word was abominable to Joab .
Divine Judgment and David's Repentance
7And God was displeased with this thing ; therefore he smote Israel . 8And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly , in that I have done this thing : but now , put away , I beseech thee , the iniquity of thy servant ; for I have done very foolishly . 9And Jehovah spake unto Gad , David ’s seer , saying , 10Go and speak unto David , saying , Thus saith Jehovah , I offer thee three things : choose thee one of them , that I may do it unto thee . 11So Gad came to David , and said unto him , Thus saith Jehovah , Take which thou wilt: 12either three years of famine ; or three months to be consumed before thy foes , while the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee ; or else three days the sword of Jehovah , even pestilence in the land , and the angel of Jehovah destroying throughout all the borders of Israel . Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him that sent me . 13And David said unto Gad , I am in a great strait : let me fall , I pray , into the hand of Jehovah ; for very great are his mercies : and let me not fall into the hand of man . 14So Jehovah sent a pestilence upon Israel ; and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men . 15And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it : and as he was about to destroy , Jehovah beheld , and he repented him of the evil , and said to the destroying angel , It is enough ; now stay thy hand . And the angel of Jehovah was standing by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite . 16And David lifted up his eyes , and saw the angel of Jehovah standing between earth and heaven , having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem . Then David and the elders , clothed in sackcloth , fell upon their faces . 17And David said unto God , Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered ? even I it is that have sinned and done very wickedly ; but these sheep , what have they done ? let thy hand , I pray thee , O Jehovah my God , be against me , and against my father’s house ; but not against thy people , that they should be plagued .
The Altar at Araunah's Threshing Floor
18Then the angel of Jehovah commanded Gad to say to David , that David should go up , and rear an altar unto Jehovah in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite . 19And David went up at the saying of Gad , which he spake in the name of Jehovah . 20And Ornan turned back , and saw the angel ; and his four sons that were with him hid themselves . Now Ornan was threshing wheat . 21And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David , and went out of the threshing-floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground. 22Then David said to Ornan, Give me the place of this threshing-floor, that I may build thereon an altar unto Jehovah : for the full price shalt thou give it me , that the plague may be stayed from the people . 23And 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 for burnt-offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood , and the wheat for the meal-offering; I give it all . 24And 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 Jehovah , nor offer a burnt-offering without cost . 25So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight . 26And David built there an altar unto Jehovah , and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, and called upon Jehovah ; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt-offering. 27And Jehovah commanded the angel ; and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof. 28At that time , when David saw that Jehovah had answered him in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite , then he sacrificed there . 29For the tabernacle of Jehovah , which Moses made in the wilderness , and the altar of burnt-offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon . 30But David could not go before it to inquire of God ; for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of Jehovah .