1 Chronicles

21 Then the accuser stood up against Israel,—and moved David to number Israel.

2 And David said unto Joab and unto the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel, from Beer-sheba even unto Dan,—and bring [the report] unto me, that I may know the number of them.

3 Then said Joab, May Yahweh add unto his people as many as they are a hundred times, but are they not, my lord O king, all of them my lord’s as servants? wherefore should my lord seek this? wherefore should it become guilt to Israel?

4 But the word of the king prevailed against Joab,—and Joab departed, and went to and fro throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.

5 And Joab delivered the sum of the number of the people unto David,—and all Israel was found to be a thousand thousand and a hundred thousand men, who drew sword, and Judah, four hundred and seventy thousand men who drew sword.

6 But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them,—for detestable was the word of the king unto Joab.

7 And it was displeasing in the eyes of God concerning this thing,—therefore smote he Israel.

8 And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing,—but now I beseech thee, take away the iniquity of thy servant, for I have shown myself very foolish.

9 Then spake Yahweh unto Gad, the seer of David, saying:

10 Go—and thou shalt speak unto David, saying, Thus saith Yahweh, Three things do I offer thee,—choose thee one from among them, that I may do it unto thee.

11 So Gad came unto David,—and said to him, Thus saith Yahweh,

12 Choose thee:—Whether for three years [there be] famine, Or for three months that thou flee before thine adversaries, while the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee. Or for three days the sword of Yahweh, and pestilence be in the land, with the messenger of Yahweh laying waste throughout all the boundary of Israel,—Now therefore see, what answer I shall return unto him that sent me.

13 And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait,—Oh let me fall, I pray thee, into the hand of Yahweh, for abounding are his compassions exceedingly, but into the hand of man let me not fall.

14 So Yahweh laid pestilence upon Israel,—and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.

15 And God sent a messenger to Jerusalem to lay it waste, but as he was laying it waste, Yahweh looked, and relented concerning the calamity, and said unto the messenger who was laying waste, Enough! now stay thy hand. And the messenger of Yahweh was standing by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

16 And when David lifted up his eyes, and saw the messenger of Yahweh standing between the earth and the heavens, and his sword drawn in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem, then fell David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, upon their faces.

17 And David said unto God, Was it not I who gave word to number the people? Yea I it was who sinned and did the great wrong, what then had these sheep done? O Yahweh, my God, let thy hand, I beseech thee, be against me, and against the house of my father, but not against thy people that they should be plagued!

18 And the messenger of Yahweh commanded Gad to say unto David,—that David should go up to rear an altar unto Yahweh, in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

19 So David went up according to the word of Gad, which he spake in the name of Yahweh.

20 And Ornan turned, and saw the messenger, but his four sons with him were hiding themselves,—now Ornan had been threshing wheat.

21 Then came David unto Ornan,—and Ornan looked and saw David, and went forth out of the threshing-floor, and bowed himself unto David with his face to the ground.

22 And David said unto Ornan, Grant me the place of the threshing-floor, that I may build thereon an altar unto Yahweh,—for silver in full shalt thou grant it me, that the plague may be stayed from off the people.

23 And Ornan said unto David, Take it to thee, and let my lord the king do what is good in his own eyes,—see! I have given the oxen for ascending-sacrifices, and the threshing implements for wood, and the wheat for a meal-offering—the whole have I given.

24 Then said King David to Ornan, Nay! but I will surely buy it for silver in full,—for I will not take that which is thine for Yahweh, nor offer an ascending-sacrifice that hath cost me nothing.

25 So David gave to Ornan for the place,—shekels of gold, by weight six hundred.

26 And David built there an altar unto Yahweh, and caused to go up ascending-sacrifices and peace-offerings,—and called unto Yahweh, and he responded to him by fire out of the heavens, upon the altar of ascending-sacrifice.

27 And Yahweh gave word to the messenger, and he put back his sword into its sheath.

28 At that time, when David saw that Yahweh had answered him in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.

29 But the habitation of Yahweh, which Moses made in the desert, and the altar of ascending-sacrifice, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon;

30 and David could not go before it to seek God,—for he had been terrified, because of the sword of the messenger of Yahweh.