The Census and Plague

21 Satan stood up against Israel, and incited David to number Israel. ² So David said to Jo′ab and the commanders of the army, “Go, number Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, and bring me a report, that I may know their number.” ³ But Jo′ab said, “May the Lord add to his people a hundred times as many as they are! Are they not, my lord the king, all of them my lord’s servants? Why then should my lord require this? Why should he bring guilt upon Israel?” ⁴ But the king’s word prevailed against Jo′ab. So Jo′ab departed and went throughout all Israel, and came back to Jerusalem. ⁵ And Jo′ab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to David. In all Israel there were one million one hundred thousand men who drew the sword, and in Judah four hundred and seventy thousand who drew the sword. ⁶ But he did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, for the king’s command was abhorrent to Jo′ab.

⁷ But God was displeased with this thing, and he smote Israel. ⁸ And David said to God, “I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing. But now, I pray thee, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.” ⁹ And the Lord spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying, ¹⁰ “Go and say to David, ‘Thus says the Lord, Three things I offer you; choose one of them, that I may do it to you.’” ¹¹ So Gad came to David and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Take which you will: ¹² either three years of famine; or three months of devastation by your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three days of the sword of the Lord, pestilence upon the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.’ Now decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me.” ¹³ Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress; let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is very great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.”

¹⁴ So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel; and there fell seventy thousand men of Israel. ¹⁵ And God sent the angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; but when he was about to destroy it, the Lord saw, and he repented of the evil; and he said to the destroying angel, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” And the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jeb′usite. ¹⁶ And David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. ¹⁷ And David said to God, “Was it not I who gave command to number the people? It is I who have sinned and done very wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, O Lord my God, be against me and against my father’s house; but let not the plague be upon thy people.”

David’s Altar and Sacrifice

¹⁸ Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and rear an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jeb′usite. ¹⁹ So David went up at Gad’s word, which he had spoken in the name of the Lord. ²⁰ Now Ornan was threshing wheat; he turned and saw the angel, and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. ²¹ As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David and went forth from the threshing floor, and did obeisance to David with his face to the ground. ²² And David said to Ornan, “Give me the site of the threshing floor that I may build on it an altar to the Lord—give it to me at its full price—that the plague may be averted from the people.” ²³ Then Ornan said to David, “Take it; and let my lord the king do what seems good to him; see, I give the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for a cereal offering. I give it all.” ²⁴ But King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will buy it for the full price; I will not take for the Lord what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings which cost me nothing.” ²⁵ So David paid Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the site. ²⁶ And David built there an altar to the Lord and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the Lord, and he answered him with fire from heaven upon the altar of burnt offering. ²⁷ Then the Lord commanded the angel; and he put his sword back into its sheath.

The Place Chosen for the Temple

²⁸ At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jeb′usite, he made his sacrifices there. ²⁹ For the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time in the high place at Gibeon; ³⁰ but David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord.