1Ch 21:1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number
Israel.
1Ch 21:2 And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go, number
Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I
may know it.
1Ch 21:3 And Joab answered, The Lord make his people an hundred times so many
more as they be: 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?
1Ch 21:4 Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab
departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.
1Ch 21:5 And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all
they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew
sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew
sword.
1Ch 21:6 But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king's word
was abominable to Joab.
1Ch 21:7 And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel.
1Ch 21:8 And David said unto 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.
1Ch 21:9 And the Lord spake unto Gad, David's seer, saying,
1Ch 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 unto thee.
1Ch 21:11 So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Choose
thee
1Ch 21:12 Either three years' famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy
foes, while that the sword of thine 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 coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise
thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me.
1Ch 21:13 And David said unto 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.
1Ch 21:14 So the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel
seventy thousand men.
1Ch 21:15 And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was
destroying, the Lord beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the
angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the
Lord stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
1Ch 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.
1Ch 21:17 And David said unto 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 thine 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
plagued.
1Ch 21:18 Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David, that David
should go up, and set up an altar unto the Lord in the threshingfloor of Ornan
the Jebusite.
1Ch 21:19 And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spake in the name of
the Lord.
1Ch 21:20 And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons with him
hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.
1Ch 21:21 And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out
of the threshingfloor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.
1Ch 21:22 Then David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of this threshingfloor,
that I may build an altar therein unto the Lord: thou shalt grant it me for the
full price: that the plague may be stayed from the people.
1Ch 21:23 And Ornan said unto 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.
1Ch 21:24 And king David said to Ornan, Nay; 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.
1Ch 21:25 So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by
weight.
1Ch 21:26 And David built there an altar unto 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.
1Ch 21:27 And the Lord commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into
the sheath thereof.
1Ch 21:28 At that time when David saw that the Lord had answered him in the
threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.
1Ch 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.
1Ch 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.