21:1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and incited David to
number Israel.
21:2 And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go,
number Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan; and bring the number
of them to me, that I may know [it].
21:3 And Joab answered, the LORD make his people a hundred times
more numerous than they [are]: but, my lord the king, [are]
they not all my lord's servants? why then doth my lord require
this thing? why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel?
21:4 Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab.
Wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and
came to Jerusalem.
21:5 And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to David.
And all [they of] Israel were a thousand thousand and a hundred
thousand men that drew sword: and Judah [was] four hundred and
seventy thousand men that drew sword.
21:6 But Levi and Benjamin he counted not among them: for the
king's word was abominable to Joab.
21:7 And God was displeased with this thing, therefore he smote
Israel.
21:8 And David said to God, I have sinned greatly, because I
have done this thing: but now, I beseech thee, do away the
iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.
21:9 And the LORD spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying,
21:10 Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the LORD, I offer
thee [three] things; choose thee one of them, that I may do
[it] to thee.
21:11 So Gad came to David, and said to him, Thus saith the
LORD, Choose thee
21:12 Either three years' famine; or three months to be
destroyed before thy foes, while the sword of thy enemies
overtaketh [thee]; or else three days the sword of the LORD,
even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the LORD
destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore
advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent
me.
21:13 And David said to Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall
now into the hand of the LORD; for very great [are] his
mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man.
21:14 So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of
Israel seventy thousand men.
21:15 And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it: and as
he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented of the
evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay
now thy hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the
threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
21:16 And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the
LORD stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn
sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and
the elders [of Israel], [who were] clothed in sackcloth, fell
upon their faces.
21:17 And David said to God, [Is it] not I [that] commanded the
people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done
evil indeed; but [as for] these sheep, what have they done? let
thy hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be on me, and on my
father's house; but not on thy people, that they should be
afflicted.
21:18 Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David,
that David should go up, and erect an altar to the LORD in the
threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
21:19 And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in
the name of the LORD.
21:20 And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four
sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.
21:21 And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked, and saw David,
and went out of the threshing-floor, and bowed himself to David
with [his] face to the ground.
21:22 Then David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of [this]
threshing-floor, that I may build an altar in it to the LORD:
thou shalt grant it to me for the full price: that the plague
may be stayed from the people.
21:23 And Ornan said to David, Take [it] to thee, and let my
lord the king do [that which is] good in his eyes: lo, I give
[thee] the oxen [also] for burnt-offerings, and the threshing
instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meat-offering; I
give it all.
21:24 And king David said to Ornan, No; but I will verily buy it
for the full price: for I will not take [that] which [is] thine
for the LORD, nor offer burnt-offerings without cost.
21:25 So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels
of gold by weight.
21:26 And David built there an altar to the LORD, and offered
burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, and called upon the LORD;
and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of
burnt-offering.
21:27 And the LORD commanded the angel; and he put up his sword
again into its sheath.
21:28 At that time when David saw that the LORD had answered him
in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he
sacrificed there.
21:29 For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses made in the
wilderness, and the altar of the burnt-offering, [were] at that
season in the high place at Gibeon.
21:30 But David could not go before it to inquire of God: for he
was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the LORD.
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