 1 Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to take a census of Israel. 2 David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go number Israel from Beersheba to Dan. And bring the number of them to me so that I may know. 3 Joab answered, May the Lord add to His people 100 times, but my lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants? Why then does my lord require this? Why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel? 4 But the king's word prevailed against Joab and Joab departed and went up and down all Israel and came again to Jerusalem. 5 Joab gave the sum of the census of the people to David. And in all Israel there were one million and a hundred thousand men who drew sword. And in Judah were 470,000 men who drew sword. 6 But Levi and Benjamin he did not count among them. For the king's word was evil to Joab. 7 It was evil in the eyes of God as to this. And He struck Israel. 8 David said to God, I have sinned greatly because I have done this. But now, I beseech you, remove the iniquity of your servant for I have done very foolishly. 9 The Lord spoke to Gad, David's seer saying, 10 Go and speak to David saying, Thus says the Lord: I offer you three things. Choose one of them so that I may do it to you. 11 Gad came to David and said to him, Thus says the Lord, Choose for yourself: 12 either three years of famine, or three months to be swept away before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtake you, or else three days of the sword of the Lord, even the plague in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the border of Israel. Now say what word I shall bring again to Him who sent me. 13 David said to Gad, I am in great distress. Let me fall now into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are very great. But do not let me fall into the hand of man. 14 The Lord sent a plague on Israel. There fell 70,000 men of Israel. 15 God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it and as he was destroying, the Lord saw and relented+ and said to the destroying angel, Stop. It is enough. Then the angel of the Lord stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 16 David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between the earth and the heavens, and his sword drawn in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem. And David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces. 17 David said to God, Did not I command to number the people? I am the one who has sinned and done evil indeed. But these sheep, what have they done? I ask you to let your hand be on me O Lord my God and on my father's house, but not on your people to that they should be plagued. 18 The angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and set up an altar to the Lord in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19 David went at the instruction of Gad, which he had spoken in the name of the Lord. 20 Ornan turned back and saw the angel. His four sons with him hid themselves and Ornan was threshing wheat. 21 David came to Ornan and when Ornan saw David, he left the threshing floor and bowed to David with his face to the ground. 22 Then David said to Ornan, Give me the place of this threshing floor, so that I may build an altar in it to the Lord. You shall give it to me for the full price, so that the plague may be stayed from the people. 23 Ornan said to David, Take for yourself and let my lord the king do what is good in his eyes. I give the oxen for burnt offerings and the threshing instruments for wood and the wheat for the food offering. I give it all. 24 King David said to Ornan, No, but I will truly buy it for the full silver. For I will not take what is yours for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings without cost. 25 David gave to Ornan for the place 600 shekels of gold by weight. 26 David built an altar there to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on the Lord. And He answered him from Heaven by fire on the altar of burnt offering. 27 The Lord commanded the angel, and he put up his sword again into its sheath. 28 At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there. 29 For the tabernacle of the Lord that Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon. 30 But David could not go before it to ask of God, for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the Lord.
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