1 Chronicles 21

Census Brings Pestilence

11Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel. 2So David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, “2Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan, and bring me word that I may know their number.” 3Joab said, “3May the Lord add to His people a hundred times as many as they are! But, my lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? Why does my lord seek this thing? Why should he be a cause of guilt to Israel?” 4Nevertheless, the king’s word prevailed against Joab. Therefore, Joab departed and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem. 5Joab gave the number of the 4census of all the people to David. And 5all Israel were 1,100,000 men who drew the sword; and Judah was 470,000 men who drew the sword. 66But he did not 7number Levi and Benjamin among them, for the king’s 8command was abhorrent to Joab.

79God was displeased with this thing, so He struck Israel. 8David said to God, “I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. 10But now, please take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”

9The Lord spoke to 11Gad, David’s 12seer, saying, 10“Go and speak to David, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord, “I 13offer you three things; choose for yourself one of them, which I will do to you.”’” 11So Gad came to David and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Take for yourself 1214either three years of famine, or three months to be swept away before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or else three days of the sword of the Lord, even pestilence in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.’ Now, therefore, consider what answer I shall return to Him who sent me.” 13David said to Gad, “I am in great distress; please let me fall into the hand of the Lord, 15for His mercies are very great. But do not let me fall into the hand of man.”

1416So the Lord 17sent a pestilence on Israel; 70,000 men of Israel fell. 15And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; but as he was about to destroy it, the Lord saw and 18was sorry over the calamity, and said to the destroying angel, “It is enough; now relax your hand.” And the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of 19Ornan the Jebusite. 16Then David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, with his drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, 20covered with sackcloth, fell on their faces. 17David said to God, “Is it not I who 21commanded to count the people? Indeed, I am the one who has sinned and done very wickedly, 22but these sheep, what have they done? O Lord my God, please let Your hand be against me and my father’s household, but not against Your people that they should be plagued.”

David’s Altar

1823Then the angel of the Lord 24commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19So David went up at the word of Gad, which he spoke in the name of the Lord. 20Now Ornan turned back and saw the angel, and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. And Ornan was threshing wheat. 21As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out from the threshing floor and prostrated himself 25before David with his face to the ground. 22Then David said to Ornan, “Give me the 26site of this threshing floor, that I may build on it an altar to the Lord; for the full price you shall give it to me, that the plague may be restrained from the people.” 23Ornan said to David, “Take it for yourself; and let my lord the king do what is good in his sight. See, I will give the oxen for burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for wood and the wheat for the grain offering; I will give it all.” 24But King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will surely buy it for the full price; for I will not take what is yours for the Lord, or offer a burnt offering 27which costs me nothing.” 25So 28David gave Ornan 600 shekels of gold by weight for the 29site. 26Then David built an altar to the Lord there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And he called to the Lord and 30He answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering. 27The Lord commanded the angel, and he put his sword back in its sheath.

28At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he offered sacrifice there. 2931For the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were in the high place at Gibeon at that time. 30But David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was terrified by the sword of the angel of the Lord.