Chronological
24 Once again the anger of the Lord flared against Israel, and he caused David to harm them by taking a national census. “Go and count the people of Israel and Judah,” the Lord told him.
2 So the king said to Joab, commander-in-chief of his army, “Take a census of all the people from one end of the nation to the other, so that I will know how many of them there are.”
3 But Joab replied, “God grant that you will live to see the day when there will be a hundred times as many people in your kingdom as there are now! But you have no right to rejoice in their strength.”[a]
4 But the king’s command overcame Joab’s remonstrance; so Joab and the other army officers went out to count the people of Israel. 5 First they crossed the Jordan and camped at Aroer, south of the city that lies in the middle of the valley of Gad, near Jazer; 6 then they went to Gilead in the land of Tahtim-hodshi and to Dan-jaan and around to Sidon; 7 and then to the stronghold of Tyre, and all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites, and south to Judah as far as Beersheba. 8 Having gone through the entire land, they completed their task in nine months and twenty days. 9 And Joab reported the number of the people to the king—800,000 men of conscription age in Israel and 500,000 in Judah.
10 But after he had taken the census, David’s conscience began to bother him, and he said to the Lord, “What I did was very wrong. Please forgive this foolish wickedness of mine.”
11 The next morning the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, who was David’s contact with God.
The Lord said to Gad, 12 “Tell David that I will give him three choices.”
13 So Gad came to David and asked him, “Will you choose seven years of famine across the land, or to flee for three months before your enemies, or to submit to three days of plague? Think this over and let me know what answer to give to God.”
14 “This is a hard decision,” David replied, “but it is better to fall into the hand of the Lord (for his mercy is great) than into the hands of men.”
15 So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel that morning, and it lasted for three days; and seventy thousand men died throughout the nation. 16 But as the death angel was preparing to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord was sorry for what was happening and told him to stop. He was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite at the time.
17 When David saw the angel, he said to the Lord, “Look, I am the one who has sinned! What have these sheep done? Let your anger be only against me and my family.”
18 That day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 19 So David went to do what the Lord had commanded him. 20 When Araunah saw the king and his men coming toward him, he came forward and fell flat on the ground with his face in the dust.
21 “Why have you come?” Araunah asked.
And David replied, “To buy your threshing floor, so that I can build an altar to the Lord, and he will stop the plague.”
22 “Use anything you like,” Araunah told the king. “Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and you can use the threshing instruments and ox yokes for wood to build a fire on the altar. 23 I will give it all to you, and may the Lord God accept your sacrifice.”
24 But the king said to Araunah, “No, I will not have it as a gift. I will buy it, for I don’t want to offer to the Lord my God burnt offerings that have cost me nothing.”
So David paid him[b] for the threshing floor and the oxen. 25 And David built an altar there to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And the Lord answered his prayer, and the plague was stopped.
21 Then Satan brought disaster upon Israel, for he made David decide to take a census.
2 “Take a complete census throughout the land[a] and bring me the totals,” he told Joab and the other leaders.
3 But Joab objected. “If the Lord were to multiply his people a hundred times, would they not all be yours? So why are you asking us to do this? Why must you cause Israel to sin?”
4 But the king won the argument, and Joab did as he was told; he traveled all through Israel and returned to Jerusalem. 5 The total population figure which he gave came to 1,100,000 men of military age in Israel and 470,000 in Judah. 6 But he didn’t include the tribes of Levi and Benjamin in his figures because he was so distressed at what the king had made him do.
7 And God, too, was displeased with the census and punished Israel for it.
8 But David said to God, “I am the one who has sinned. Please forgive me, for I realize now how wrong I was to do this.”
9 Then the Lord said to Gad, David’s personal prophet, 10-11 “Go and tell David, ‘The Lord has offered you three choices. Which will you choose? 12 You may have three years of famine, or three months of destruction by the enemies of Israel, or three days of deadly plague as the Angel of the Lord brings destruction to the land. Think it over and let me know what answer to return to the one who sent me.’”
13 “This is a terrible decision to make,” David replied, “but let me fall into the hands of the Lord rather than into the power of men, for God’s mercies are very great.”
14 So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel and 70,000 men died as a result. 15 During the plague God sent an Angel to destroy Jerusalem; but then he felt such compassion that he changed his mind and commanded the destroying Angel, “Stop! It is enough!” (The Angel of the Lord was standing at the time by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.) 16 When David saw the Angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth with his sword drawn, pointing toward Jerusalem, he and the elders of Israel clothed themselves in sackcloth and fell to the ground before the Lord.
17 And David said to God, “I am the one who sinned by ordering the census. But what have these sheep done? O Lord my God, destroy me and my family, but do not destroy your people.”
18 Then the Angel of the Lord told Gad to instruct David to build an altar to the Lord at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19-20 So David went to see Ornan, who was threshing wheat at the time. Ornan saw the Angel as he turned, and his four sons ran and hid. 21 Then Ornan saw the king approaching. So he left the threshing floor and bowed to the ground before King David.
22 David said to Ornan, “Let me buy this threshing floor from you at its full price; then I will build an altar to the Lord and the plague will stop.”
23 “Take it, my lord, and use it as you wish,” Ornan said to David. “Take the oxen, too, for burnt offerings; use the threshing instruments for wood for the fire and use the wheat for the grain offering. I give it all to you.”
24 “No,” the king replied, “I will buy it for the full price; I cannot take what is yours and give it to the Lord. I will not offer a burnt offering that has cost me nothing!”
25 So David paid Ornan $4,300 in gold
22 Then David said, “Right here at Ornan’s threshing floor is the place where I’ll build the Temple of the Lord and construct the altar for Israel’s burnt offering!”
2 David now drafted all the resident aliens in Israel to prepare blocks of squared stone for the Temple. 3 They also manufactured iron into the great quantity of nails needed for the doors in the gates and for the clamps; and they smelted so much bronze that it was too much to weigh. 4 The men of Tyre and Sidon brought great rafts of cedar logs to David.
5 “Solomon my son is young and tender,” David said, “and the Temple of the Lord must be a marvelous structure, famous and glorious throughout the world; so I will begin the preparations for it now.”
So David collected the construction materials before his death. 6 He now commanded his son Solomon to build a Temple for the Lord God of Israel.
7 “I wanted to build it myself,” David told him, 8 “but the Lord said not to do it. ‘You have killed too many men in great wars,’ he told me. ‘You have reddened the ground before me with blood: so you are not to build my Temple. 9 But I will give you a son,’ he told me, ‘who will be a man of peace, for I will give him peace with his enemies in the surrounding lands. His name shall be Solomon (meaning “Peaceful”), and I will give peace and quietness to Israel during his reign. 10 He shall build my Temple, and he shall be as my own son and I will be his father; and I will cause his sons and his descendants to reign over every generation of Israel.’
11 “So now, my son, may the Lord be with you and prosper you as you do what he told you to do and build the Temple of the Lord. 12 And may the Lord give you the good judgment to follow all his laws when he makes you king of Israel. 13 For if you carefully obey the rules and regulations that he gave to Israel through Moses, you will prosper. Be strong and courageous, fearless and enthusiastic!
14 “By hard work I have collected several billion dollars worth of gold bullion, millions in silver,[c] and so much iron and bronze that I haven’t even weighed it; I have also gathered timber and stone for the walls. This is at least a beginning, something with which to start. 15 And you have many skilled stonemasons and carpenters and craftsmen of every kind. 16 They are expert gold and silver smiths and bronze and iron workers. So get to work, and may the Lord be with you!”
17 Then David ordered all the leaders of Israel to assist his son in this project.
18 “The Lord your God is with you,” he declared. “He has given you peace with the surrounding nations, for I have conquered them in the name of the Lord and for his people. 19 Now try with every fiber of your being to obey the Lord your God, and you will soon be bringing the Ark and the other holy articles of worship into the Temple of the Lord!”
30 I will praise you, Lord, for you have saved me from my enemies. You refuse to let them triumph over me. 2 O Lord my God, I pleaded with you, and you gave me my health again. 3 You brought me back from the brink of the grave, from death itself, and here I am alive!
4 Oh, sing to him you saints of his; give thanks to his holy name. 5 His anger lasts a moment; his favor lasts for life! Weeping may go on all night, but in the morning there is joy.
6-7 In my prosperity I said, “This is forever; nothing can stop me now! The Lord has shown me his favor. He has made me steady as a mountain.” Then, Lord, you turned your face away from me and cut off your river of blessings.[a] Suddenly my courage was gone; I was terrified and panic-stricken. 8 I cried to you, O Lord; oh, how I pled: 9 “What will you gain, O Lord, from killing me? How can I praise you then to all my friends? How can my dust in the grave speak out and tell the world about your faithfulness? 10 Hear me, Lord; oh, have pity and help me.” 11 Then he turned my sorrow into joy! He took away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy 12 so that I might sing glad praises to the Lord instead of lying in silence in the grave. O Lord my God, I will keep on thanking you forever!
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.