The Census and Plague

21 Satan stood up against Israel and incited David to count the people of Israel.^(A)

David’s Census of Israel and Judah

24 Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go, count the people of Israel and Judah.”^{(A) 2} So the king said to Joab and the commanders of the army^[a] who were with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beer-sheba, and take a census of the people, so that I may know how many there are.”^{(B) 3} But Joab said to the king, “May the Lord your God increase the number of the people a hundredfold while the eyes of my lord the king can still see it! But why does my lord the king want to do this?” ⁴ But the king’s word prevailed against Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to take a census of the people of Israel. ⁵ They crossed the Jordan and began from^[b] Aroer and from the city that is in the middle of the valley, toward Gad and on to Jazer.^{(C) 6} Then they came to Gilead and to Kadesh in the land of the Hittites,^[c] and they came to Dan, and from Dan^[d] they went around to Sidon^{(D) 7} and came to the fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites, and they went out to the Negeb of Judah at Beer-sheba.^{(E) 8} So when they had gone through all the land, they came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. ⁹ Joab reported to the king the number of those who had been recorded: in Israel there were eight hundred thousand soldiers able to draw the sword, and those of Judah were five hundred thousand.^(F)

Judgment on David’s Sin

¹⁰ But afterward, David was stricken to the heart because he had numbered the people. David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, I pray you, take away the guilt of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”^{(G) 11} When David rose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying,^{(H) 12} “Go and say to David: Thus says the Lord: Three things I offer^[e] you; choose one of them, and I will do it to you.”^{(I) 13} So Gad came to David and told him; he asked him, “Shall seven years of famine come to you on your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? Now consider and decide what answer I shall return to the one who sent me.” ¹⁴ Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress; let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great, but let me not fall into human hands.”^(J)

¹⁵ So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel from that morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand of the people died, from Dan to Beer-sheba.^{(K) 16} But when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented concerning the evil and said to the angel who was bringing destruction among the people, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” The angel of the Lord was standing^[f] by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. David looked up 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 on their faces.^{[g](L) 17} When David saw the angel who was destroying the people, he said to the Lord, “I alone have sinned, and I, the shepherd, have done evil,^[h] but these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father’s house.”^(M)

David’s Altar on the Threshing Floor

¹⁸ That day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go up and erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”^{(N) 19} Following Gad’s instructions, David went up, as the Lord had commanded. ²⁰ When Araunah looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming toward him, and Araunah went out and prostrated himself before the king with his face to the ground. ²¹ Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you in order to build an altar to the Lord, so that the plague may be averted from the people.”^{(O) 22} Then Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him; here are the oxen for the burnt offering and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood.^{(P) 23} All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the Lord your God respond favorably to you.”^(Q)

²⁴ But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy them from you for a price; I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.^{(R) 25} David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and offerings of well-being. So the Lord answered his supplication for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel.^(S)

Fourth Vision: Joshua and Satan

3 Then he showed me the high priest Joshua standing before the angel of the Lord and the accuser^[a] standing at his right hand to accuse him.^(A)

Attack on Job’s Health

2 One day the heavenly beings^[a] came to present themselves before the Lord, and the accuser^[b] also came among them to present himself before the Lord.^(A)

⁴ Then the accuser^[a] answered the Lord, “Skin for skin! All that the man has he will give for his life. ⁵ But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.”^{(A) 6} The Lord said to the accuser,^[b] “Very well, he is in your power; only spare his life.”^(B)

Attack on Job’s Character

⁶ One day the heavenly beings^[a] came to present themselves before the Lord, and the accuser^[b] also came among them.^{(A) 7} The Lord said to the accuser,^[c] “Where have you come from?” The accuser^[d] answered the Lord, “From going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it.”^{(B) 8} The Lord said to the accuser,^[e] “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.”^{(C) 9} Then the accuser^[f] answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing?^{(D) 10} Have you not put a fence around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.^{(E) 11} But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”^{(F) 12} The Lord said to the accuser,^[g] “Very well, all that he has is in your power; only do not stretch out your hand against him!” So the accuser^[h] went out from the presence of the Lord.

²⁰ And the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, so that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ Then one said one thing, and another said another, ²¹ until a certain spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ ²² ‘How?’ the Lord asked him. He replied, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ Then the Lord^[a] said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do it.’^(A)

¹⁰ Then I heard a loud voice in heaven proclaiming,

²⁴ And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds,