“1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number
Israel. 2 And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go,
number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them
to me, that I may know [it]. 3 And Joab answered, The LORD make his
people an hundred times so many more as they [be]: but, my lord the
king, [are] they not all my lord’s servants? why then doth my lord
require this thing? why will he be a cause of trespass 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 the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all [they
of] Israel were a thousand thousand and an 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 unto God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done
this thing: but now, I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy
servant; for I have done very foolishly. 9 And the LORD spake unto Gad,
David’s seer, saying, 10 Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the LORD,
I offer thee three [things]: choose thee one of them, that I may do [it]
unto thee. 11 So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the
LORD, Choose thee 12 Either three years’ famine; or three months to be
destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies
overtaketh [thee]; or else three days the sword of the LORD, even the
pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout
all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall
bring again to him that sent me. 13 And David said unto Gad, I am in a
great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very great
[are] his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man. 14 So the
LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy
thousand men. 15 And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and
as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil,
and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand.
And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the
Jebusite. 16 And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD
stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand
stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders [of Israel, who
were] clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. 17 And David said
unto God, [Is it] not I [that] commanded the people to be numbered? even
I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but [as for] these sheep,
what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be on
me, and on my father’s house; but not on thy people, that they should be
plagued.”
“18 Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David, that
David should go up, and set up an altar unto the LORD in the
threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19 And David went up at the saying
of Gad, which he spake in the name of the LORD. 20 And Ornan turned
back, and saw the angel; and his four sons 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 threshingfloor, and bowed himself to
David with [his] face to the ground. 22 Then David said to Ornan, Grant
me the place of [this] threshingfloor, that I may build an altar therein
unto the LORD: thou shalt grant it me for the full price: that the
plague may be stayed from the people. 23 And Ornan said unto David, Take
[it] to thee, and let my lord the king do [that which is] good in his
eyes: lo, I give [thee] the oxen [also] for burnt offerings, and the
threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meat offering; I
give it all. 24 And king David said to Ornan, Nay; but I will verily buy
it for the full price: for I will not take [that] which [is] thine for
the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings 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 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. 27 And the LORD
commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath
thereof. 28 At that time when David saw that the LORD had answered him
in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.
29 For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses made in the wilderness,
and the altar of the burnt offering, [were] at that season in the high
place at Gibeon. 30 But David could not go before it to enquire of God:
for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the LORD.” (1
Chronicles 21:1-30 AV)
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