1 Chronicles 21

The Voice

21 After our King David had consolidated his power in Israel, conquering his surrounding enemies, an adversary^[a] stood against Israel, and incited David to conduct a census in the nation to determine the strength of his army before going to war.

In the parallel passage of 2 Samuel 24, David receives three options for punishment concerning his disobedience. He knows the Eternal is far more merciful than human beings, so he elects three days of divine pestilence. Sadly thousands of Israelites die because of David’s arrogance in wanting to know just how powerful his kingdom has become. But the chronicler does something the writer of Samuel does not: he explains how this incident determines where David will plan to build the temple (22:1). The threshing floor of Ornan is the perfect spot for it since this is where God stops the hand of the heavenly messenger from destroying Jerusalem.

David (to Joab and Israel’s tribal leaders): ²Count the number of people in Israel from Beersheba in the south to Dan in the north and report that number to me.

Joab: ³May the Eternal add immeasurably to His followers! But, my lord the king, aren’t every one of those people your subjects? Why does my lord seek this? Why would you do something that could cause your Israelites guilt?

⁴In spite of Joab’s objections, David’s census occurred. Joab obeyed his king, traveled throughout Israel, and returned to Jerusalem. ⁵He then reported the number of all the people to David: 1,100,000 swordsmen were in Israel and 470,000 were in Judah. ⁶But Joab rebelled against David’s command and did not count Levi and Benjamin because he was against the census.

⁷As Joab anticipated, God was displeased with the census and He struck Israel. ⁸The king then prayed to God.

David: I know that I have sinned greatly by requiring a census. Please remove the sin of Your servant, who has acted so very foolishly.

⁹The Eternal spoke to Gad, David’s seer.

Eternal One: ¹⁰Give David My message: “I am offering you a choice of three punishments. Make your selection, and I will do that to you.”

So Gad paid the king a visit.

Gad (to David): ¹¹The Eternal One says, “Choose your punishment: ¹²three years of famine, three months of pursuit by your enemies, or three days of the Eternal’s sword—plague and destruction by His messenger.” So, what answer should I tell Him?

David: ¹³This choice greatly distresses me. Tell Him I would rather fall before the Eternal, whose mercies are very great, than fall before men.

¹⁴So the Eternal did as He promised and sent a violent plague to Israel; 70,000 men of Israel died. ¹⁵God also sent a heavenly messenger to destroy Jerusalem; but as the messenger was poised to ruin it, the Eternal saw the damage caused by the plague and grieved over the calamity. He told the messenger, “The pestilence is enough punishment; stand down.” The Eternal’s messenger stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite when the True God stopped him.

¹⁶When David looked up and saw the Eternal’s messenger standing between earth and heaven with his sword stretched out over Jerusalem, David and the elders mourned. They dressed in sackcloth and prostrated themselves.

David (calling out to God): ¹⁷Wasn’t I the one who commanded the census? I, the shepherd, certainly have sinned and done evil; but what have the rest of the nation, Your sheep, done? Eternal One, my True God, please punish only me and my father’s household, not all of Your people.

Messenger (commanding Gad): ¹⁸Tell David to build an altar to the Eternal on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

¹⁹David obeyed the instruction of the divine messenger.

²⁰When Ornan saw the messenger, his four sons who were with him hid among the wheat. But Ornan continued threshing. ²¹As David approached, Ornan glimpsed the king, left his chores, and prostrated himself before David.

David: ²²Sell me this threshing floor so I may build on it an altar to the Eternal. I will pay you the full price so the plague against the people may end.

Ornan: ²³Take it; it’s yours to do with as you please. I will donate the oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing tools for wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give it all to you, my king.

David: ²⁴No, I must buy it for the full price. I will not give your possessions to the Eternal as if they were my own, nor will I give a burnt offering which costs me nothing. I must sacrifice something for this offering.

²⁵So David paid Ornan 15 pounds of gold by weight for the property. ²⁶There David built an altar to the Eternal, sacrificed burnt offerings, and gave peace offerings. David requested His presence, and He accepted the altar and sacrifices by sending fire from heaven onto the altar of burnt offering. ²⁷Then the Eternal commanded the divine messenger to sheath his sword. ²⁸When David saw how the Eternal had answered him on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite by coming to the altar as fire and by stopping the plagues and the destruction of Jerusalem, David offered a sacrifice there instead of at Gibeon. ²⁹(The congregation tent of the Eternal, which Moses had built in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were in the high place at Gibeon at that time.) ³⁰But David could not go to Gibeon to commune with God because he still feared that the Eternal’s messenger would slay him.