I Chronicles 21

1. Then Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel.

2. And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, “Go number Israel from Beersheba to Dan. And bring the number of them to me so that I may know.”

3. And Joab answered, “May the LORD add to His people a hundred times, but my lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? Why then does my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel?”

4. But the king’s word prevailed against Joab. And Joab departed and went up and down all Israel, and came again to Jerusalem.

5. And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to David. And in all Israel there were one million and a hundred thousand men who drew the sword. And in Judah were four hundred and seventy thousand men who drew the sword.

6. But Levi and Benjamin he did not count among them, for the king’s word was abominable to Joab.

7. And God was displeased with this thing; therefore He struck Israel.

8. And David said to God, “I have sinned greatly because I have done this thing. But now, I beseech You, remove the iniquity of Your servant for I have done very foolishly.”

9. And the LORD spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying,

10. “Go and tell David, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: “I offer you three things. Choose one of them so that I may do it to you.” ‘ ”

11. And Gad came to David and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Choose for yourself:

12. Either 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 the plague in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the border of Israel.’ And now say what word I shall bring again to Him Who sent me.”

13. And David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let me fall now into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are very great. But do not let me fall into the hand of man.”

14. So the LORD sent a plague upon Israel. And there fell seventy thousand men of Israel.

15. And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. And as he was destroying, the LORD looked. And He repented of the evil and said to the angel who destroyed, “Enough! Stay your hand now!” And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

16. And David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the LORD standing between the earth and heaven, and his sword drawn in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem. And David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.

17. And David said to God, “Did not I command to number the people? Even I am the one who has sinned and done evil indeed. But these sheep, what have they done? I pray You, let Your hand be upon me, O LORD my God, and upon my father’s house, but not upon Your people, that they should be plagued.”

18. And the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and set up an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

19. And David went up at the word of Gad which he spoke in the name of the LORD.

20. And Ornan turned back and saw the angel. And his four sons with him hid themselves. And Ornan was threshing wheat.

21. And David came to Ornan, and Ornan looked and saw David. And he went out of the threshing floor and bowed to David with his face to the ground.

22. Then David said to Ornan, “Give me the place of this threshing floor, so that I may build an altar on it to the LORD. You shall give it to me for the full price, so that the plague may be stayed from the people.”

23. And Ornan said to David, “Take it for yourself, and let my lord the king do what is good in his eyes. Lo, I give the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I give it all.”

24. And King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will truly buy it for the full price, for I will not take what is yours for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings without cost.”

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

26. And David built an altar there 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.

27. And the LORD commanded the angel, and he put up his sword again into its sheath.

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.

29. For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon.

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.