1 Chronicles 21

1Satan stood up against Israel and incited David to count Israel.

2So David said to Joab and the commanders of the army, “Go, count Israel from Beersheba to Dan, and bring me a report so that I may know their number.”

3But Joab said, “May Yahweh add to his people a hundred times as many as they are! My lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?”

4But the king’s word prevailed over Joab. So Joab left and went throughout all Israel and then came back to Jerusalem.

5Joab gave David the total count of the people. In all Israel there were 1,100,000 men who could draw the sword, and in Judah there were 470,000 men who could draw the sword.

6But he did not include Levi and Benjamin in the count, because the king’s command was repugnant to Joab.

7This thing was evil in the sight of God, and he struck Israel.

8Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly by doing this thing. But now, please take away the guilt of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”

9Yahweh spoke to Gad, David’s seer:

10“Go and tell David, ‘This is what Yahweh says: I am offering you three options. Choose one of them for yourself, and I will do it to you.’”

11So Gad came to David and said to him, “This is what Yahweh says: Take your choice:

12either three years of famine, or three months of being swept away before your foes while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or three days of the sword of Yahweh, a plague in the land, with the angel of Yahweh bringing destruction throughout all the territory of Israel. Now decide what answer I should give to the one who sent me.”

13David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Please let me fall into the hand of Yahweh, for his mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”

14So Yahweh sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell.

15God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. But as he was destroying it, Yahweh looked and relented concerning the disaster, and he said to the angel who was destroying, “Enough! Now withdraw your hand.” The angel of Yahweh was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

16David looked up and saw the angel of Yahweh standing between earth and heaven, with a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.

17David said to God, “Was it not I who gave the order to count the people? I am the shepherd who has sinned and done great evil. But these sheep, what have they done? Yahweh my God, please let your hand be against me and my father’s family, but do not let the plague be on your people.”

18Then the angel of Yahweh told Gad to tell David to go up and set up an altar to Yahweh on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

19So David went up at the word of Gad, which he had spoken in the name of Yahweh.

20Ornan turned and saw the angel, and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Ornan was threshing wheat.

21When David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and he went out from the threshing floor and bowed down to David with his face to the ground.

22David said to Ornan, “Give me the site of this threshing floor so that I may build an altar to Yahweh on it. Sell it to me for the full price, so that the plague may be stopped from striking the people.”

23Ornan said to David, “Take it for yourself, and let my lord the king do whatever seems good to him. See, I give you the oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I give it all.”

24But King David said to Ornan, “No, I insist on buying it for the full price. I will not take for Yahweh what is yours, or offer a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”

25So David paid Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the site.

26David built an altar to Yahweh there and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on Yahweh, and Yahweh answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.

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

28At that time, when David saw that Yahweh had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there.

29The tabernacle of Yahweh, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time at the high place in Gibeon.

30But David could not go before it to inquire of God, because he was terrified of the sword of the angel of Yahweh.