2 Samuel 24

1Again the anger of Yahweh burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go, count Israel and Judah.”

2So the king said to Joab, the commander of the army who was with him, “Go about now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beer-sheba, and count the people, so that I may know the number of the people.”

3But Joab said to the king, “May Yahweh your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king delight in this thing?”

4But the king’s word prevailed against Joab and against the commanders of the army, so Joab and the commanders of the army went out from before the king to count the people of Israel.

5They crossed the Jordan and camped at Aroer, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad, and toward Jazer.

6They came to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim-hodshi, and they came to Dan-jaan, and around to Sidon.

7They came to the fortified city of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites, and they went out to the Negev of Judah, to Beersheba.

8They traveled throughout all the land, and at the end of nine months and twenty days they came to Jerusalem.

9Joab gave the number of the census of the people to the king: Israel was eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.

10After that, David’s heart struck him after he had counted the people. And David said to Yahweh, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. And now, Yahweh, please take away the guilt of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”

11When David arose in the morning, the word of Yahweh had come to Gad the prophet, David’s seer, saying,

12Go and speak to David, ‘Thus says Yahweh: I am setting three things before you. Choose one of them for yourself, and I will do it to you.’

13So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, “Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your adversaries while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days of pestilence in your land? Now know and see what answer I should return to the one who sent me.”

14Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us fall, please, into the hand of Yahweh, for his mercies are many; but let me not fall into the hand of man.”

15So Yahweh sent a plague on Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand men of the people died, from Dan to Beersheba.

16When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Yahweh relented concerning the calamity and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough; now withdraw your hand.” And the angel of Yahweh was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

17Then David said to the LORD, when he saw the angel striking the people, “Look, I have sinned, and I have done wrong; but these sheep—what have they done? Please let your hand be against me and against my father's house.”

18That day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go up and set up an altar to Yahweh on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”

19So David went up according to the word of Gad, just as Yahweh had commanded.

20Araunah looked out and saw the king and his servants passing by him. So Araunah went out and bowed down to the king with his face to the ground.

21And Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” And David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to Yahweh, so that the plague may be stopped from being upon the people.”

22Then Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what is good in his eyes. Look, the oxen are for the burnt offering, and the threshing sledges and the implements of the oxen are for the wood.”

23Araunah the king gave all this to the king. And Araunah said to the king, “May Yahweh your God accept you.”

24But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price. I will not offer to Yahweh my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the cattle for fifty shekels of silver.

25There David built an altar to Yahweh and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings. So Yahweh responded to the land, and the plague was restrained from Israel.