1And Satan stood up against Israel , and provoked David to number Israel . 2And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people , Go , number Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan ; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it . 3And 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 ? 4Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab . Wherefore Joab departed , and went throughout all Israel , and came to Jerusalem . 5And 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 . 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 , because I have done this thing : but now, I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant ; for I have done very foolishly . 9And the LORD spake unto Gad , David’s seer , saying , 10Go 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. 11So Gad came to David , and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD , Choose thee 12Either 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. 13And 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 . 14So the LORD sent 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 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 . 16And 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 . 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 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 .
The Altar at Araunah's Threshing Floor
18Then 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 . 19And David went up at the saying of Gad , which he spake in the name of the LORD . 20And Ornan turned back , and saw the angel ; and his four sons 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 threshingfloor , and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground . 22Then 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 . 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 also for burnt offerings , and the threshing instruments for wood , and the wheat for the meat 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 the LORD , nor offer burnt offerings without cost . 25So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight . 26And 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 . 27And the LORD commanded the angel ; and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof. 28At that time when David saw that the LORD had answered him in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite , then he sacrificed there. 29For 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 . 30But David could not go before it to enquire of God : for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the LORD .