Census Brings Pestilence
1Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel.
2So David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan, and bring me
word that I may know their number.
3Joab said, May the L
ORD add to His people a hundred times as many as they are! But, my lord the king, are they not all my lords servants? Why does my lord seek this thing? Why should he be a cause of guilt to Israel?
4Nevertheless, the kings word prevailed against Joab. Therefore, Joab departed and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.
5Joab gave the number of the census of
all the people to David. And all Israel were 1,100,000 men who drew the sword; and Judah
was 470,000 men who drew the sword.
6But he did not number Levi and Benjamin among them, for the kings command was abhorrent to Joab.
7God was displeased with this thing, so He struck Israel.
8David said to God, I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now, please take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly.
9The L
ORD spoke to Gad, Davids seer, saying,
10Go and speak to David, saying, Thus says the L
ORD, I offer you three things; choose for yourself one of them, which I will do to you.
11So Gad came to David and said to him, Thus says the L
ORD, Take for yourself
12either three years of famine, or three months to be swept away before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes
you, or else three days of the sword of the L
ORD, even pestilence in the land, and the angel of the L
ORD destroying throughout all the territory of Israel. Now, therefore, consider what answer I shall return to Him who sent me.
13David said to Gad, I am in great distress; please let me fall into the hand of the L
ORD, for His mercies are very great. But do not let me fall into the hand of man.
14So the L
ORD sent a pestilence on Israel; 70,000 men of Israel fell.
15And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; but as he was about to destroy
it, the L
ORD saw and was sorry over the calamity, and said to the destroying angel, It is enough; now relax your hand. And the angel of the L
ORD was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16Then David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the L
ORD standing between earth and heaven, with his drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, covered with sackcloth, fell on their faces.
17David said to God, Is it not I who commanded to count the people? Indeed, I am the one who has sinned and done very wickedly, but these sheep, what have they done? O L
ORD my God, please let Your hand be against me and my fathers household, but not against Your people that they should be plagued.
Davids Altar
18Then the angel of the L
ORD commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up and build an altar to the L
ORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
19So David went up at the word of Gad, which he spoke in the name of the L
ORD.
20Now Ornan turned back and saw the angel, and his four sons
who were with him hid themselves. And Ornan was threshing wheat.
21As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out from the threshing floor and prostrated himself before David with his face to the ground.
22Then David said to Ornan, Give me the site of
this threshing floor, that I may build on it an altar to the L
ORD; for the full price you shall give it to me, that the plague may be restrained from the people.
23Ornan said to David, Take
it for yourself; and let my lord the king do what is good in his sight. See, I will give the oxen for burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for wood and the wheat for the grain offering; I will give
it all.
24But King David said to Ornan, No, but I will surely buy
it for the full price; for I will not take what is yours for the L
ORD, or offer a burnt offering which costs me nothing.
25So David gave Ornan 600 shekels of gold by weight for the site.
26Then David built an altar to the L
ORD there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And he called to the L
ORD and He answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.
27The L
ORD commanded the angel, and he put his sword back in its sheath.
28At that time, when David saw that the L
ORD had answered him on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he offered sacrifice there.
29For the tabernacle of the L
ORD, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering
were in the high place at Gibeon at that time.
30But David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was terrified by the sword of the angel of the L
ORD.