David orders a census of Israel, against Joab's advice, and is struck with guilt. God sends a plague, and David pleads for the people. He buys the threshing floor of Araunah and builds an altar there, and the plague stops.
1 And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel , and he moved David against them to say , Go , number Israel and Judah .
2 For the king said to Joab the captain of the host , which was with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel , from Dan even to Beersheba , and number ye the people , that I may know the number of the people .
3 And Joab said unto the king , Now the LORD thy God add unto the people , how many soever they be, an hundredfold , and that the eyes of my lord the king may see it: but why doth my lord the king delight in this thing ?
4 Notwithstanding the king's word prevailed against Joab , and against the captains of the host . And Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence of the king , to number the people of Israel .
5 And they passed over Jordan , and pitched in Aroer , on the right side of the city that lieth in the midst of the river of Gad , and toward Jazer :
6 Then they came to Gilead , and to the land of Tahtimhodshi ; and they came to Danjaan , and about to Zidon ,
7 And came to the strong hold of Tyre , and to all the cities of the Hivites , and of the Canaanites : and they went out to the south of Judah , even to Beersheba .
8 So when they had gone through all the land , they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days .
9 And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the people unto the king : and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword ; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men .
10 And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people . And David said unto the LORD , I have sinned greatly in that I have done : and now, I beseech thee, O LORD , take away the iniquity of thy servant ; for I have done very foolishly .
11 For when David was up in the morning , the word of the LORD came unto the prophet Gad , David's seer , saying ,
12 Go and say unto David , Thus saith the LORD , I offer thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee .
13 So Gad came to David , and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land ? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies , while they pursue thee? or that there be three days ' pestilence in thy land ? now advise , and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.
14 And David said unto Gad , I am in a great strait : let us fall now into the hand of the LORD ; for his mercies are great : and let me not fall into the hand of man .
15 So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed : and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men .
16 And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD repented him of the evil , and said to the angel that destroyed the people , It is enough : stay now thine hand . And the angel of the LORD was by the threshingplace of Araunah the Jebusite .
17 And David spake unto the LORD when he saw the angel that smote the people , and said , Lo, I have sinned , and I have done wickedly : but these sheep , what have they done ? let thine hand , I pray thee, be against me, and against my father's house .
18 And Gad came that day to David , and said unto him, Go up , rear an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite .
19 And David , according to the saying of Gad , went up as the LORD commanded .
20 And Araunah looked , and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him: and Araunah went out , and bowed himself before the king on his face upon the ground .
21 And Araunah said , Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant ? And David said , To buy the threshingfloor of thee, to build an altar unto the LORD , that the plague may be stayed from the people .
22 And Araunah said unto David , Let my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good unto him : behold , here be oxen for burnt sacrifice , and threshing instruments and other instruments of the oxen for wood .
23 All these things did Araunah , as a king , give unto the king . And Araunah said unto the king , The LORD thy God accept thee.
24 And the king said unto Araunah , Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price : neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing . So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver .
25 And David built there an altar unto the LORD , and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings . So the LORD was intreated for the land , and the plague was stayed from Israel .