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rose up against Israel and incited David to number Israel. 2 So David said to Joab and the leaders of the people, “Go and count Israel from Beer-sheba to Dan, and bring me a report, so I may know their number.”
3 But Joab answered, “May the Lord multiply his people a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord’s subjects? Why then does my lord require this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?”
4 However, the king’s word prevailed against Joab. So Joab set out and went throughout all Israel and then returned to Jerusalem. 5 Then Joab reported to David the total number of fighting men who had been registered. In all Israel there were 1,100,000 men who could draw the sword, while in Judah there were 470,000 men who could draw the sword.
6 But Joab did not include Levi and Benjamin in the count, because the king’s command was abhorrent to Joab. 7 But God was displeased about this matter, so He punished Israel.
8 Then David said to God,
“I have sinned greatly because I have done this thing. But now, I beg You, take away the guilt of Your servant, for I have been very foolish.”
9 Then the Lord spoke to Gad, David’s seer, and told him: 10 “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says, “I offer you three things; choose one of them for yourself, and I will bring it upon you” ’.”
11 So Gad went to David and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Choose what you will: 12 either three years of famine; or three months of being swept away before your foes, with the swords of your enemies overtaking you; or three days of the sword of the Lord—pestilence in the land, with the angel of the Lord wreaking destruction throughout all the territory of Israel’. Now then, decide what answer I should take back to the One who sent me.”
13 David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for His mercies are very great, but do not let me fall into the hands of men.”
14 So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel, and 70,000 men of Israel fell. 15 And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. But as the angel was destroying it, the Lord looked on, and He was grieved by the calamity. So He said to the destroying angel, “Enough! Withdraw your hand!” At that time, the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16 David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, with a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown to the ground.
17 David said to God,
“Was it not I who ordered the people to be numbered? I am the one who has sinned and acted very wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? O Lord my God, let Your hand fall upon me and my father’s house, but do not let Your people suffer this plague.”
18 Then the angel of the Lord ordered Gad to tell David to go and set up an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19 So David went up, following Gad’s instructions, which he had spoken in the name of the Lord.
20 While Ornan was threshing wheat, he turned around and saw the angel. His four sons, who were with him, hid themselves, while Ornan continued threshing wheat. 21 David came to Ornan, and when Ornan looked and saw David, he left the threshing floor and bowed down to David with his face to the ground.
22 Then David said to Ornan, “Let me have the site of this threshing floor, so I can build an altar to the Lord on it. Sell it to me for the full price, so the plague on the people may be withdrawn.”
23 But Ornan said to David, “Take it! Let my lord the king do whatever is good in his eyes. Look, I will give the oxen to you for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering—I give it all.”
24 But King David replied to Ornan, “No, I will buy them at the full price. I will not take what is yours for the Lord, or offer a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”
25 So David paid Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the piece of ground. 26 Then David built an altar to the Lord there, and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on the Lord, and the Lord answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.
27 Then the Lord commanded the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath. 28 At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there. 29 The Tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were on the high place at Gibeon at that time. 30 But David could not go before it to inquire of God, because he was terrified of the sword of the angel of the Lord.