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the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He incited David against them to say, “Go, take a census of Israel and Judah.”
2 So the king said to Joab and the commanders of the army with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba, and take a census of the people, so that I may know their number.”
3 But Joab replied to the king, “May the Lord your God increase the number of the people a hundredfold, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?”
4 But the king’s command to Joab and the army commanders with him remained in place. So Joab and the commanders of the armies went out from the presence of the king to register the people of Israel.
5 After they crossed the Jordan, they camped in Aroer, south of the town, and down in the valley. From there they proceeded through Gad and on toward Jazer. 6 They went to Gilead and the region of the Tahtim-hodshi, and on to Dan-jaan and around to Sidon. 7 They went on to the fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites. Finally, they went out to Beersheba in the Negev of Judah.
8 When they had gone throughout the entire land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. 9 Joab reported the number of the people to the king: In Israel there were eight hundred thousand fighting men who could draw the sword, and in Judah five hundred thousand men.
10 But afterward David’s conscience troubled him because he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, I beg You, take away the guilt of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”
11 When David rose in the morning, the word of the Lord had come to the prophet Gad, David’s seer: 12 “Go and say to David, ‘This is what the Lord says, “I offer you three options. Choose one of them for Me, and I will bring it upon you’.”
13 So Gad went to David and he said to him, “Shall there be three years of famine in your land? Or will you flee from your enemies for three months while they pursue you? Or will there be three days of plague in your land? Now, think it over and decide what answer I should return to the One who sent me.”
14 David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercy is great, but do not let me fall into the hands of men.”
15 So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel from that morning until the appointed time, and from Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand of the people died. 16 But when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented concerning the destruction, and He said to the angel who was afflicting the people, “It is enough! Now stay your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
17 When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the Lord, “Look, I am the one who has sinned, and I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, fall upon me and my father’s house.”
18 Gad came to David that same day and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 19 So David went up, according to the instructions of Gad, as the Lord had commanded. 20 Araunah look down and saw the king and his servants coming toward him, so he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.
21 Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David answered, “To buy the threshing floor from you, so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped.”
22 Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever he pleases and offer it up. 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, Araunah gives to the king.” Then he said to the king, “May the Lord your God accept you.”
24 But the king answered Araunah, “No, I insist on buying it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 25 David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Lord answered prayer on behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.