2 Samuel 24:13-25 ▼

13 So 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’ pestilence in your land? Now, know and see what word I should return to Him who sent me.”

14 Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of Yahweh, for His compassions are abundant. But do not let me fall into the hand of man.”

15 So Yahweh sent a pestilence against Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and 70,000 men of the people from Dan to Beersheba died.

16 Then the angel sent forth his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, and Yahweh relented of the calamity and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough! Now relax your hand!” And the angel of Yahweh was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

17 Then David spoke to Yahweh when he saw the angel who was striking down the people, and said, “Behold, it is I who have sinned, and it is I who have done unrighteousness; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let Your hand be against me and my father’s house.”

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

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

20 And Araunah looked down and saw the king and his servants crossing over toward him; and Araunah went out and bowed his face to the ground before the king.

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

22 And Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what is good in his sight. Look, the oxen for the burnt offering, the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood.

23 Everything, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May Yahweh your God accept you.”

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

25 Then David built there an altar to Yahweh and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Thus Yahweh was moved by the entreaty for the land, and the plague was checked from being upon Israel.