2 Samuel 24

1Again the anger of Yahweh burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go, count Israel and Judah.”

2So the king said to Joab, the commander of the army, who was with him, “Go throughout all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and register the people, so that I may know how many people there are.”

3But Joab said to the king, “May Yahweh your God multiply the people a hundred times over, however many they may be, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do this?”

4However, the king’s word prevailed over Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army left the king’s presence to register the people of Israel.

5They crossed the Jordan and camped at Aroer, south of the town in the middle of the valley, toward Gad and on to Jazer.

6Then they went to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim-hodshi, and they came to Dan-jaan and around toward Sidon.

7They went to the fortress of Tyre and all the towns of the Hivites and the Canaanites, and they finished at Beersheba in the Negev of Judah.

8When they had gone through the whole land, they came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.

9Joab reported the number of the people who had been registered to the king. In Israel there were eight hundred thousand able-bodied men who could draw the sword, and the men of Judah numbered five hundred thousand.

10But afterward David’s conscience troubled him because he had counted the people. David said to Yahweh, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, Yahweh, please take away the guilt of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”

11When David got up in the morning, the word of Yahweh had come to the prophet Gad, David’s seer:

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

13So Gad went to David and told him. He said to him, “Should seven years of famine come on your land? Or should you flee for three months from your enemies while they pursue you? Or should there be three days of plague in your land? Now think it over and decide what answer I should give to the one who sent me.”

14David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us fall into the hand of Yahweh, for his mercy is great, but do not let me fall into human hands.”

15So Yahweh sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand of the people died, from Dan to Beersheba.

16But when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Yahweh relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Now withdraw your hand.” The angel of Yahweh was then by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

17When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to Yahweh, “Look, it is I, the shepherd, who have sinned, and I who have done wrong. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me and against my father’s family.”

18That day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go up and set up an altar to Yahweh on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”

19So David went up as Gad had told him, just as Yahweh had commanded.

20When Araunah looked down and saw the king and his servants coming toward him, Araunah went out and bowed before the king with his face to the ground.

21Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David answered, “To buy the threshing floor from you, so that I can build an altar to Yahweh and the plague on the people may be stopped.”

22Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take it and offer up whatever seems good to him. Here are the oxen for the burnt offering, and the threshing sledges and the oxen’s yokes for the wood.

23All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May Yahweh your God accept you.”

24But the king said to Araunah, “No, I insist on buying it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to Yahweh my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

25David built an altar to Yahweh there and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then Yahweh answered prayer for the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.