1Chr 21
1
And Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.
2
And 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.
3
And Joab said, YHWH 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 does my lord require this thing?
why will he be a cause of guilt 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 up the sum of the numbering of the people to 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.
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 to God, I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing: but
now, put away, I beseech you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.
9
And YHWH spoke to Gad, David`s seer, saying,
10
Go and speak to David, saying, Thus says YHWH, I offer you three things: choose you
one of them, that I may do it to you.
11
So Gad came to David, and said to him, Thus says YHWH, Take which you will:
12
either three years of famine; or three months to be consumed before your foes, while
the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three days the sword of YHWH, even
pestilence in the land, and the angel of YHWH destroying throughout all the borders
of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him whom sent me.
13
And David said to Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall, I pray, into the hand
of YHWH; for very great are his mercies: and let me not fall into the hand of man.
14
So YHWH sent a pestilence upon Israel; and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
15
And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was about to destroy,
YHWH beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the destroying angel, It
is enough; now stay your hand. And the angel of YHWH was standing by the threshing-floor
of Ornan the Jebusite.
16
And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of YHWH 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.
17
And David said to 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 your hand, I pray you, O YHWH my God, be against me, and against my father`s house;
but not against your people, that they should be plagued.
18
Then the angel of YHWH commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and
rear an altar to YHWH in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
19
And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in the name of YHWH.
20
And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons that were 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 threshing-floor,
and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.
22
Then David said to Ornan, Give me the place of this threshing-floor, that I may build
thereon an altar to YHWH: for the full price shall you give it me, that the plague
may be stayed from the people.
23
And Ornan said to David, Take it to you, and let my lord the king do that which is
good in his eyes: behold, I give [you] the oxen for burnt-offerings, and the threshing
instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal-offering; I give it all.
24
And king David said to Ornan, Nay; but I will truly buy it for the full price: for
I will not take that which is yours for YHWH, nor offer a burnt-offering 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 to YHWH, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings,
and called upon YHWH; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt-offering.
27
And YHWH commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into its sheath.
28
At that time, when David saw that YHWH had answered him in the threshing-floor of
Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.
29
For the tabernacle of YHWH, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt-offering,
were at that time in the high place at Gibeon.
30
But David could not go before it to inquire of God; for he was afraid because of the
sword of the angel of YHWH.