1 Chronicles 21

1Then Satan stood up against Israel and incited David to count Israel.

2Then David said to Joab and to the commanders of the people, “Go, count Israel from Beersheba to Dan, and bring it to me, so that I may know their number.”

3But Joab said, “May Yahweh add to his people a hundred times as many as they are! Are they not all, my lord the king, servants of my lord? Why does my lord seek this? Why should it become guilt for Israel?”

4But the king’s word prevailed against Joab. So Joab went out and went throughout all Israel, and he came to Jerusalem.

5Joab gave the number of the census of the people to David. All Israel was 1,100,000 men drawing the sword, and Judah was 470,000 men drawing the sword.

6But he did not count Levi and Benjamin among them, because the king’s command was detestable to Joab.

7But this matter was evil in the sight of God, so he struck Israel.

8Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly in doing this thing. But now, please take away the guilt of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”

9And Yahweh spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying,

10Go and speak to David, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh: I am setting three things before you. Choose one of them for yourself, and I will do it to you.’

11So Gad came to David and said to him, “Thus says Yahweh, ‘Choose for yourself—’”

12either three years of famine, or three months of being swept away before your foes while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or three days of the sword of Yahweh, even pestilence in the land, with the angel of Yahweh destroying throughout all the territory of Israel. Now consider what answer I should return to the one who sent me.

13Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Please let me fall into the hand of Yahweh, for his mercies are very great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”

14So Yahweh sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell.

15And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, but as he was destroying it, Yahweh saw and relented concerning the calamity, and he said to the destroying angel, “Enough; now withdraw your hand.” And the angel of Yahweh was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

16David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of Yahweh standing between the earth and the heavens, with his sword drawn in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, covered in sackcloth, fell on their faces.

17Then David said to God, “Was it not I who ordered the people to be counted? I am the one who has sinned and done great evil. But these sheep—what have they done? O Yahweh my God, please let your hand be against me and against my father’s house, but not against your people for a plague.”

18And the angel of Yahweh said to Gad to tell David that David should go up to set up an altar to Yahweh on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

19So David went up at the word of Gad, which he had spoken in the name of Yahweh.

20Ornan turned and saw the angel, and his four sons with him were hiding themselves, while Ornan was threshing wheat.

21When David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and he went out from the threshing floor and bowed down before David with his face to the ground.

22Then David said to Ornan, “Give me the place of the threshing floor, so that I may build on it an altar to the LORD. Give it to me for the full price, so that the plague may be stopped from upon the people.”

23And Ornan said to David, “Take it for yourself, and let my lord the king do what is good in his eyes. See, I have given the cattle for burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I have given it all.”

24But King David said to Ornan, “No, for I will surely buy it for the full price in silver, because I will not take for Yahweh what is yours, nor offer up a burnt offering for nothing.”

25And David gave Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place.

26There David built an altar to Yahweh and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings. He called on Yahweh, and he answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.

27And Yahweh spoke to the angel, and he returned his sword to its sheath.

28At that time, when David saw that Yahweh had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there.

29The tabernacle of Yahweh, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time on the high place at Gibeon.

30But David could not go before it to seek God, because he was terrified by the sword of the angel of Yahweh.