¹⁴ Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of the Lord, ^(A)for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”

Plague Sent

¹⁵ So ^(B)the Lord ^[a]sent a plague upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand men of the people ^(C)from Dan to Beersheba died. ^16 (D)When the angel extended his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, ^(E)the Lord relented of the disaster and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough! Now drop your hand!” And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. ¹⁷ Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking down the people, and said, “Behold, ^(F)it is I who have sinned, and it is I who have done wrong; but ^(G)these sheep, what have they done? Please let Your hand be against me and against my father’s house!”

David Builds an Altar

¹⁸ So Gad came to David that day and said to him, “^(H)Go up, erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of ^[b]Araunah the Jebusite.” ¹⁹ Then David went up in accordance with the word of Gad, just as the Lord had commanded. ²⁰ And Araunah looked down and saw the king and his servants crossing over toward him; so 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said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the Lord, ^(I)so that the plague may be ^[c]withdrawn from the people.” ²² Araunah then said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what is good in his sight. Look, here are ^(J)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 the Lord your God be ^(K)favorable to you.” ²⁴ However, the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will certainly buy it from you for a price; for ^(L)I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God ^[d]that cost me nothing.” So ^(M)David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. ²⁵ Then David built there an altar to the Lord, and he offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And ^(N)the Lord responded to prayer for the land, and the plague was ^[e]withdrawn from Israel.

David in Old Age

1 Now King David was old, ^[a]advanced in age; and they covered him with garments, but he could not keep warm. ² So his servants said to him, “Have them search for a young virgin for my lord the king, and have her ^[b]attend the king and become his nurse; and have her lie on your chest, so that my lord the king may keep warm.” ³ So they searched for a beautiful girl throughout the territory of Israel, and found Abishag the ^(A)Shunammite, and brought her to the king. ⁴ The girl was very beautiful; and she became the king’s nurse and served him, but the king did not ^[c]become intimate with her.

⁵ Now ^(B)Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, “I will be king.” So ^(C)he prepared for himself chariots and horsemen, with fifty men to run before him. ⁶ And his father had never rebuked him at any time by asking, “Why have you done so?” And he was also a very handsome man, and ^[d](D)he was born after Absalom.