[1] Again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he incited
David against them, saying, "Go, number Israel and Judah." [2] So the king
said to Jo'ab and the commanders of the army, who were with him, "Go
through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beer-sheba, and number the
people, that I may know the number of the people." [3] But Jo'ab said to
the king, "May the LORD your God add to the people a hundred times as many
as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see it; but why does
my lord the king delight in this thing?" [4] But the king's word prevailed
against Jo'ab and the commanders of the army. So Jo'ab and the commanders
of the army went out from the presence of the king to number the people of
Israel. [5] They crossed the Jordan, and began from Aro'er, and from the
city that is in the middle of the valley, toward Gad and on to Jazer. [6]
Then they came to Gilead, and to Kadesh in the land of the Hittites; and
they came to Dan, and from Dan they went around to Sidon, [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. [8] So when they had
gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months
and twenty days. [9] And Jo'ab gave the sum of the numbering of the people
to the king: in Israel there were eight hundred thousand valiant men who
drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand. [10] But
David's heart smote him after he had numbered the people. And David said to
the LORD, "I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O LORD, I
pray thee, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very
foolishly." [11] And when David arose in the morning, the word of the LORD
came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, [12] "Go and say to David,
`Thus says the LORD, Three things I offer you; choose one of them, that I
may do it to you." [13] So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him,
"Shall three years of famine come to you in 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 him 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 the hand of man." [15] So the LORD sent a
pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time; and there
died of the people from Dan to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men. [16] And
when the angel stretched forth his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the
LORD repented of the evil, and said to the angel who was working
destruction among the people, "It is enough; now stay your hand." And the
angel of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Arau'nah the Jeb'usite.
[17] Then David spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel who was smiting the
people, and said, "Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these
sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, be against me and
against my father's house." [18] And Gad came that day to David, and said
to him, "Go up, rear an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of
Arau'nah the Jeb'usite." [19] So David went up at Gad's word, as the LORD
commanded. [20] And when Arau'nah looked down, he saw the king and his
servants coming on toward him; and Arau'nah went forth, and did obeisance
to the king with his face to the ground. [21] And Arau'nah said, "Why has
my lord the king come to his servant?" David said, "To buy the threshing
floor of you, in order to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may
be averted from the people." [22] Then Arau'nah 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. [23] All this, O king, Arau'nah gives to the king." And Arau'nah
said to the king, "The LORD your God accept you." [24] But the king said to
Arau'nah, "No, but I will buy it of you for a price; I will not offer burnt
offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing." So David bought the
threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. [25] And David
built there an altar to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace
offerings. So the LORD heeded supplications for the land, and the plague
was averted from Israel.
