Historical

21 Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to take a census of Israel. ² David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, “Go, count Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring me word, that I may know how many there are.”

³ Joab said, “May Yahweh make his people a hundred times as many as they are. But, my lord the king, aren’t they all my lord’s servants? Why does my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of guilt to Israel?”

⁴ Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab. Therefore Joab departed and went throughout all Israel, then came to Jerusalem. ⁵ Joab gave the sum of the census of the people to David. All those of Israel were one million one hundred thousand men who drew a sword; and in Judah were four hundred seventy thousand men who drew a sword. ⁶ But he didn’t count Levi and Benjamin among them, for the king’s word was abominable to Joab.

⁷ God was displeased with this thing; therefore he struck Israel. ⁸ David said to God, “I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”

⁹ Yahweh spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying, ¹⁰ “Go and speak to David, saying, ‘Yahweh says, “I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.”’”

¹¹ So Gad came to David and said to him, “Yahweh says, ‘Take your choice: ¹² either three years of famine; or three months to be consumed before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three days of the sword of Yahweh, even pestilence in the land, and Yahweh’s angel destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.’”

¹³ David said to Gad, “I am in distress. Let me fall, I pray, into Yahweh’s hand, for his mercies are very great. Don’t let me fall into man’s hand.”

¹⁴ So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell. ¹⁵ God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was about to destroy, Yahweh saw, and he relented of the disaster, and said to the destroying angel, “It is enough. Now withdraw your hand.” Yahweh’s angel was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ¹⁶ David lifted up his eyes, and saw Yahweh’s angel standing between earth and the sky, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem.

Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces. ¹⁷ David said to God, “Isn’t it I who commanded the people to be counted? It is even I who have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O Yahweh my God, be against me and against my father’s house; but not against your people, that they should be plagued.”

¹⁸ Then Yahweh’s angel commanded Gad to tell David that David should go up and raise an altar to Yahweh on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ¹⁹ David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in Yahweh’s name.

²⁰ Ornan turned back and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat. ²¹ As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshing floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.

²² Then David said to Ornan, “Sell me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar to Yahweh on it. You shall sell it to me for the full price, that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people.”

²³ Ornan said to David, “Take it for yourself, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes. Behold, I give the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal offering. I give it all.”

²⁴ King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will most certainly buy it for the full price. For I will not take that which is yours for Yahweh, nor offer a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”

²⁵ So David gave to Ornan six hundred shekels^[a] of gold by weight for the place. ²⁶ David built an altar to Yahweh there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on Yahweh; and he answered him from the sky by fire on the altar of burnt offering.

²⁷ Then Yahweh commanded the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath.

²⁸ At that time, when David saw that Yahweh had answered him in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there. ²⁹ For Yahweh’s tabernacle, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon. ³⁰ But David couldn’t go before it to inquire of God, for he was afraid because of the sword of Yahweh’s angel.

22 Then David said, “This is the house of Yahweh God, and this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel.”

² David gave orders to gather together the foreigners who were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to cut dressed stones to build God’s house. ³ David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates and for the couplings, and bronze in abundance without weight, ⁴ and cedar trees without number, for the Sidonians and the people of Tyre brought cedar trees in abundance to David. ⁵ David said, “Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be built for Yahweh must be exceedingly magnificent, of fame and of glory throughout all countries. I will therefore make preparation for it.” So David prepared abundantly before his death. ⁶ Then he called for Solomon his son, and commanded him to build a house for Yahweh, the God of Israel. ⁷ David said to Solomon his son, “As for me, it was in my heart to build a house to the name of Yahweh my God. ⁸ But Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, ‘You have shed blood abundantly and have made great wars. You shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight. ⁹ Behold, a son shall be born to you, who shall be a man of peace. I will give him rest from all his enemies all around; for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness to Israel in his days. ¹⁰ He shall build a house for my name; and he will be my son, and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.’ ¹¹ Now, my son, may Yahweh be with you and prosper you, and build the house of Yahweh your God, as he has spoken concerning you. ¹² May Yahweh give you discretion and understanding, and put you in charge of Israel, so that you may keep the law of Yahweh your God. ¹³ Then you will prosper, if you observe to do the statutes and the ordinances which Yahweh gave Moses concerning Israel. Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid and don’t be dismayed. ¹⁴ Now, behold, in my affliction I have prepared for Yahweh’s house one hundred thousand talents^[b] of gold, one million talents^[c] of silver, and bronze and iron without weight; for it is in abundance. I have also prepared timber and stone; and you may add to them. ¹⁵ There are also workmen with you in abundance—cutters and workers of stone and timber, and all kinds of men who are skillful in every kind of work; ¹⁶ of the gold, the silver, the bronze, and the iron, there is no number. Arise and be doing, and may Yahweh be with you.”

¹⁷ David also commanded all the princes of Israel to help Solomon his son, saying, ¹⁸ “Isn’t Yahweh your God with you? Hasn’t he given you rest on every side? For he has delivered the inhabitants of the land into my hand; and the land is subdued before Yahweh and before his people. ¹⁹ Now set your heart and your soul to follow Yahweh your God. Arise therefore, and build the sanctuary of Yahweh God, to bring the ark of Yahweh’s covenant and the holy vessels of God into the house that is to be built for Yahweh’s name.”

23 Now David was old and full of days; and he made Solomon his son king over Israel. ² He gathered together all the princes of Israel, with the priests and the Levites. ³ The Levites were counted from thirty years old and upward; and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty-eight thousand. ⁴ David said, “Of these, twenty-four thousand were to oversee the work of Yahweh’s house, six thousand were officers and judges, ⁵ four thousand were doorkeepers, and four thousand praised Yahweh with the instruments which I made for giving praise.”

⁶ David divided them into divisions according to the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

⁷ Of the Gershonites: Ladan and Shimei. ⁸ The sons of Ladan: Jehiel the chief, Zetham, and Joel, three. ⁹ The sons of Shimei: Shelomoth, Haziel, and Haran, three. These were the heads of the fathers’ households of Ladan. ¹⁰ The sons of Shimei: Jahath, Zina, Jeush, and Beriah. These four were the sons of Shimei. ¹¹ Jahath was the chief, and Zizah the second; but Jeush and Beriah didn’t have many sons; therefore they became a fathers’ house in one reckoning.

¹² The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, four. ¹³ The sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses; and Aaron was separated that he should sanctify the most holy things, he and his sons forever, to burn incense before Yahweh, to minister to him, and to bless in his name forever. ¹⁴ But as for Moses the man of God, his sons were named among the tribe of Levi. ¹⁵ The sons of Moses: Gershom and Eliezer. ¹⁶ The sons of Gershom: Shebuel the chief. ¹⁷ The son of Eliezer was Rehabiah the chief; and Eliezer had no other sons, but the sons of Rehabiah were very many. ¹⁸ The son of Izhar: Shelomith the chief. ¹⁹ The sons of Hebron: Jeriah the chief, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, and Jekameam the fourth. ²⁰ The sons of Uzziel: Micah the chief, and Isshiah the second.

²¹ The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. The sons of Mahli: Eleazar and Kish. ²² Eleazar died, and had no sons, but daughters only; and their relatives, the sons of Kish, took them as wives. ²³ The sons of Mushi: Mahli, Eder, and Jeremoth, three.

²⁴ These were the sons of Levi after their fathers’ houses, even the heads of the fathers’ houses of those who were counted individually, in the number of names by their polls, who did the work for the service of Yahweh’s house, from twenty years old and upward. ²⁵ For David said, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, has given rest to his people; and he dwells in Jerusalem forever. ²⁶ Also the Levites will no longer need to carry the tabernacle and all its vessels for its service.” ²⁷ For by the last words of David the sons of Levi were counted, from twenty years old and upward. ²⁸ For their duty was to wait on the sons of Aaron for the service of Yahweh’s house—in the courts, in the rooms, and in the purifying of all holy things, even the work of the service of God’s house; ²⁹ for the show bread also, and for the fine flour for a meal offering, whether of unleavened wafers, or of that which is baked in the pan, or of that which is soaked, and for all measurements of quantity and size; ³⁰ and to stand every morning to thank and praise Yahweh, and likewise in the evening; ³¹ and to offer all burnt offerings to Yahweh on the Sabbaths, on the new moons, and on the set feasts, in number according to the ordinance concerning them, continually before Yahweh; ³² and that they should keep the duty of the Tent of Meeting, the duty of the holy place, and the duty of the sons of Aaron their brothers for the service of Yahweh’s house.