1And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel and He moved Satan against David, saying: “Go, number Israel and Judah,” to bring them the evil He spoke through Samuel the seer.
2And the king said to Joab the captain and to the princes of the people: “Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number the people, and bring me word, that I may know the sum of them.”
3And Joab said unto the king: “May the LORD add unto the people how many so ever they may be, a hundredfold, and may the eyes of the LORD our God watch over them; but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? Why does my lord require this thing? And why should it be a cause of trespass unto Israel? For the LORD has said: ‘Which cannot be numbered for the multitude.’”
4Notwithstanding, the king’s word prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the host. And Joab and the captains of the host went from the presence of the king to number the people of Israel.
5And they passed over the Jordan, and camped in Aroer, south of the town in the middle of the river of Gad, and toward Jazer.
6And they came to Gilead, and then to the land of the Hittites, to Kadesh, and they came to Dan and Enan, and round about to Zidon.
7And they came to the stronghold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites. And they went out to the south of Judah, to Beersheba.
8So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. But Joab did not number Levi and Benjamin, for the king’s word was abominable to Joab.
9And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were eight hundred thousand valiant men and three hundred thousand men that drew a sword, and in Judah there were four hundred and seventy thousand valiant men and thirty thousand men that drew a sword.
10And the LORD God was displeased with this act of Israel, and He sent Gad the seer to David, saying:
11“Thus said the LORD: ‘I am the King of Israel, and I am their portion. I am their avenger, I am their fortress and might, and you know that it is not with a sword or a spear that I will save, and not with a man of valiance that draws a sword, for this is the portion of the heathens that stand on their might and many warriors.
12But you are not like that, for I am a lone warrior and there is no one with Me. Why would you do this evil to number your people? For that I will strike Israel, so that you will know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth.”
13And David’s heart was grieved after that. And David said unto the LORD: “I have sinned greatly in what I have done; but now O LORD, I beg You, take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”
14And David rose up in the morning, and the Word of the LORD had already come to Gad the prophet, David’s seer, saying:
15“Go and say unto David: ‘Thus says the LORD: ‘I offer you three things; choose one of them, that I may do it unto you.”
16So Gad came to David and told him, and said unto him: “Shall four years of famine come unto the land of Israel and three years in the land of Judah? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you, while the sword of your enemies overtake you? Or shall there be three days of the sword of the LORD, which is pestilence, in your land, and the angel the LORD destroying throughout all the land of Israel? Now advise yourself, and decide what answer I shall return to Him who sent me.”
17And David said unto Gad: “I am in a great strait; let me fall, and let us fall now, into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are great; and let me not fall into the hand of man.”
18So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel, from the morning even to the time appointed; and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men.
19And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it; and as he was destroying it, the LORD beheld, and He repented Him of the evil, and said to the angel that was destroying the people: “It is enough; now stay your hand.” And the angel of the LORD was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
20And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD standing between the heaven and the earth, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. And David and the elders, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.
21And David said unto God: “Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? Even I it is that have sinned and acted wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? O LORD my God, let Your hand be against me and against my father’s house, but not against Your people, that they should be plagued. Shall not the judge of all the earth do justice?”
22And the LORD said: “They incited Satan against you to number them, saying thus: ‘We will be like all the nations,’ but I am a God of justice; may I return their high heart into their own bosoms.
23For a broken or a contrite heart I shall not despise forever.” Psalm
24And the angel of the LORD told Gad to tell David that David should go up and rear an altar unto the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
25And David went up according to the words of Gad which he spoke in the name of the LORD.
26And Ornan was looking and he saw the king and his four sons with him. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.
27And Ornan looked and saw David, and he went out of the threshing floor, and bowed down to David with his face to the ground.
28Then David said to Ornan: “Sell me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar therein unto the LORD; you shall sell it to me for the full price, that the plague may be stayed from the people.”
29And Ornan said unto David: “Take it, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes; lo, I give the oxen also for burnt offering, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal offering; I give it all.”
30And King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will verily buy it for the full price; for I will not take that which is yours for the LORD, nor offer a burnt offering without paying for it.”
31So David gave Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold, and for the cattle fifty shekels of silver, by weight.
32And 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.
33And the LORD commanded the angel; and he put his sword back into the sheath thereof, and the plague was stayed from Israel.
34At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, and He did not despise him, then he sacrificed there unto the LORD for the rest of his life.
35For David would no longer go and sacrifice unto the LORD in the high place at Gibeon, where there was an altar unto the LORD and a tabernacle which Moses made, for he was terrified and weakened because of the sword of the angel of the LORD that he had seen.