2 Samuel 24

1 And the anger of the Lord burned against Israel once more, and he stirred David up against them, saying, “Go, count Israel and Judah.” [a] 2 And the king said to Joab the commander of the army, who was with him, “Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and count the people, and I will know the number of the people.” [b]

3 And Joab said to the king, “May the Lord your God add to the people as many again as they are, and a hundred times as many, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But my lord the king — why does he want this thing?” 4 But the king’s word overruled Joab and the commanders of the army, and Joab and the commanders of the army went out from before the king to count the people of Israel.

5 And they crossed the Jordan and camped at Aroer, to the right of the city that stands in the middle of the ravine of Gad and Eliezer. [c] 6 And they came to Gilead, and to the land of Thabason, which is Adasai, and they came to Danidan and Udan, and circled around to Sidon. [d] 7 And they came to Mapsar of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivite and the Canaanite, and they came out to the south of Judah, to Beersheba. [e] 8 And they went all around the whole land, and at the end of nine months and twenty days they came to Jerusalem. 9 And Joab gave the king the number from the counting of the people: Israel was eight hundred thousand men of strength who drew the sword, and the men of Judah five hundred thousand fighting men.

10 And David’s heart struck him after he had counted the people, and David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. And now, Lord, put aside the lawlessness of your servant, for I have been very foolish.”

11 And David got up in the morning. And the word of the Lord came to Gad the prophet, David’s seer, saying, [f] 12 “Go and speak to David, saying, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am bringing three things upon you. Choose one of them for yourself, and I will do it to you.’”

13 And Gad came in to David and told him and said to him, “Choose for yourself what is to happen: whether three years of famine should come on you in your land; or that you should flee three months before your enemies while they pursue you; or that there should be three days of death in your land. Now then, think it over and see what answer I am to take back to the one who sent me.” [g] 14 And David said to Gad, “I am hemmed in on every side. Let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for his compassions are very many; but let me not fall into the hand of man.” And David chose death for himself. [h]

15 And it was the days of the wheat harvest. And the Lord sent death on Israel from morning until the hour of the noon meal, and the plague began among the people; and there died of the people, from Dan even to Beersheba, seventy thousand men. [i] 16 And the messenger of God stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, and the Lord relented over the harm and said to the messenger who was destroying among the people, “Enough now — hold back your hand.” And the messenger of the Lord was beside the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. [j]

17 And David spoke to the Lord when he saw the messenger striking the people, and he said, “Look, it is I who did wrong, and I, the shepherd, who did evil. But these sheep — what have they done? Let your hand be against me, and against my father’s house.” [l]

18 And Gad came to David that day and said to him, “Go up and set up an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.” 19 And David went up according to the word of Gad, in the way the Lord had commanded him. 20 And Ornan looked down and saw the king and his servants coming over toward him, and Ornan went out and bowed down to the king with his face to the ground.

21 And Ornan said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” And David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the Lord, so that the plague may be held back from the people.” 22 And Ornan said to David, “Let my lord the king take and bring up to the Lord what is good in his eyes. Look, here are the oxen for a whole burnt offering, and the threshing wheels and the gear of the oxen for wood.” 23 Ornan gave it all to the king. And Ornan said to the king, “May the Lord your God bless you.”

24 And the king said to Ornan, “No — I will buy it from you for a price, and I will not bring up to the Lord my God a whole burnt offering that costs me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for about a pound and a quarter of silver. [m] 25 And David built an altar there to the Lord and brought up whole burnt offerings and peaceable offerings. And Solomon made an addition to the altar afterward, because it was small at first. And the Lord listened to the land, and the plague was held back from Israel. [n]