2Sam 24
1
And the Lord caused his anger to burn forth again in Israel, and Satan stirred up
David against them, saying, Go, number Israel and Juda.
2
And the king said to Joab commander of the host, who was with him, Go now through
all the tribes of Israel and Juda, from Dan even to Bersabee, and number the people,
and I will know the number of the people.
3
And Joab said to the king, Now may the Lord add to the people a hundred-fold as many
as they are, and may the eyes of my lord the king Gr. seeing see it: but why does my lord the king desire this thing?
4
Nevertheless the word of the king prevailed against Joab an the captains of the host:
And Joab and the captains of the host went out before the king to number the people
of Israel.
5
And they went over Jordan, and encamped in Aroer, on the right of the city which is
in the midst of the valley of Gad and Eliezer.
6
And they came to Galaad, and into the land of Thabason, which is Adasai, and they
came to Danidan and Udan, and compassed Sidon.
7
And they came to Mapsar of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Evite and the Chananite:
and they came by the South of Juda to Bersabee.
8
And they compassed the whole land; and they arrived at Jerusalem at the end of nine
months and twenty days.
9
And Joab gave in the number of the census of the people to the king: and Israel consisted
of eight hundred thousand men of might that drew sword; and the men of Juda, five
hundred thousand fighting men.
10
And the heart of David smote him after he had numbered the people; and David said
to the Lord, I have sinned grievously, O Lord, in what I have now done: remove, I
pray you, the iniquity of your servant, for I have been exceedingly foolish.
11
And David rose early in the morning, and the word of the Lord came to the prophet
Gad, the seer, saying, Go, and speak to David, saying,
12
Thus says the Lord, The word eimi is simply redundant I bring one of three things upon you: now choose you one of them, and
I will do it
to you.
13
And Gad went in to David, and told him, and said to him, Choose one of these things
to befall you, whether there shall come upon you for three years famine in your land;
or that you should flee three months before your enemies, and they should pursue you;
or that there should be for three days mortality in your land. Now then decide, and
see what answer I shall return to him whom sent me.
14
And David said to Gad, On every side Gr. things are very narrow to me I am much straitened: let me fall now into the hands
of the Lord, for his compassions
are very many; and let me not fall into the hands of man.
15
So David chose for himself the mortality: and they were the days of wheat-harvest;
and the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from morning till Lit. dinner time noon, and the plague began among the people;
and there died of the people from Dan
even to Bersabee seventy thousand men.
16
And the angel of the Lord stretched out his hand against Jerusalem to destroy it,
and the Lord repented of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people,
It is Gr. much enough now, withhold your hand. And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing-floor
of Orna the Jebusite.
17
And David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel smiting the people, and he said,
Behold, it is I that have done wrong, Alex. adds, «and I the shepherd have done wickedly’ but these sheep what have they done?
Let your hand, I pray you, be upon me, and upon
my father’s house.
18
And Gad came to David in that day, and said to him, Go up, and set up to the Lord
and altar in the threshing-floor of Orna the Jebusite.
19
And David went up according to the word of Gad, as the Lord commanded him.
20
And Orna Gr. stooped; See 1 Pe 1:12, also Joh 20:5 looked out, and saw the king and his servants coming on before him: and
Orna went
forth, and did obeisance to the king with his face to the earth.
21
And Orna said, Why has my lord the king come to his servant? and David said, To buy
of you the threshing-floor, in order to build an altar to the Lord that the plague
may be restrained from off the people.
22
And Orna said to David, Let my lord the king take and offer to the Lord that which
is good in his eyes: behold, here are oxen for a whole-burnt-offering, and the wheels
and furniture of the oxen for wood.
23
Orna gave all to the king: and Orna said to the king, The Lord your God bless you.
24
And the king said to Orna, Nay, but I will surely buy it of you at a fair price, and
I will not offer to the Lord my God a whole-burnt-offering for nothing. So David purchased
the threshing-floor and the oxen for Gr. silver of fifty shekels fifty shekels of silver.
25
And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered up whole-burnt-offerings and
peace-offerings: and Solomon made an addition to the altar afterwards, for it was
little at first. And the Lord hearkened to the land, and the plague was stayed from
Israel.