1 Chronicles 21

1 An accuser stood up in Israel and stirred David up to count Israel. [a] 2 And king David said to Joab and to the commanders of the army, “Go, count Israel from Beersheba even to Dan, and bring the count to me, and I will know their number.” 3 And Joab said, “May the Lord add to his people a hundred times as many as they are, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. All of them are servants to my lord. Why does my lord seek this? Let it not become a sin for Israel.”

4 But the king’s word overruled Joab. And Joab went out and went through all the territory of Israel, and came to Jerusalem. 5 And Joab gave David the number from the counting of the people: all Israel was one million one hundred thousand men who drew the sword, and Judah four hundred and eighty thousand men who drew the sword. [b] 6 But Levi and Benjamin he did not count among them, because the king’s word had been too strong for Joab. [c]

7 And this thing appeared evil before God, and he struck Israel. 8 And David said to God, “I have sinned greatly in doing this thing. And now take away the evil of your servant, for I have been very foolish.” [d]

9 And the Lord spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying, 10 “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.’” 11 And Gad came to David and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: Choose for yourself — 12 either three years of famine; or three months of fleeing before your enemies, with the sword of your enemies destroying you; or three days of the sword of the Lord and death in the land, and the messenger of the Lord destroying in all the inheritance of Israel. And now see what answer I am to bring back to the one who sent me.” [e]

13 And David said to Gad, “I am hemmed in hard, and by all three of them. Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his compassions are very many; but let me not fall into the hands of men.” 14 So the Lord sent death upon Israel, and seventy thousand men fell of Israel.

15 And God sent a messenger to Jerusalem to destroy it. And as he was destroying, the Lord saw, and he relented over the evil, and he said to the messenger who was destroying, “It is enough for you. Hold back your hand.” And the messenger of the Lord was standing at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 16 And David lifted up his eyes and saw the messenger of the Lord standing between the earth and the heaven, with his sword drawn in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem. And David and the elders, wrapped in sackcloth, fell on their faces.

17 And David said to God, “Was it not I who said to count the people? And I am the one who sinned; I have done evil, and done it truly. But these sheep — what have they done? Lord God, let your hand be against me and against my father’s house, and not against your people, for their destruction, O Lord.”

18 And the messenger of the Lord told Gad to say to David that he should go up and set up an altar to the Lord at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19 And David went up according to the word of Gad, which he had spoken in the name of the Lord. 20 And Ornan turned and saw the king, and his four sons with him hid themselves. And Ornan was threshing wheat. [g] 21 And David came to Ornan, and Ornan came out from the threshing floor and bowed down to David with his face to the ground.

22 And David said to Ornan, “Give me the place of your threshing floor, and I will build on it an altar to the Lord. Give it to me for silver at its full worth, and the blow will cease from among 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. Look, I have given the young bulls for a whole burnt offering, and the plow and the wagons for wood, and the wheat for a sacrifice. I have given it all.” [h] 24 And king David said to Ornan, “No — I will buy it, and buy it for silver at its full worth. I will not take what is yours for the Lord, to bring up a whole burnt offering to the Lord for nothing.” 25 And David gave Ornan for his place about fifteen pounds of gold by weight. [i]

26 And David built an altar there to the Lord and brought up whole burnt offerings and offerings of well-being. And he cried out to the Lord, and he answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of the whole burnt offering, and it consumed the whole burnt offering. [j] 27 And the Lord spoke to the messenger, and he put the sword back into its sheath. 28 At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there.

29 And the tent of the Lord, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the whole burnt offerings, were at that time at the high place in Gibeon; [k] 30 and David could not go before it to seek God, because he had hurried away from before the sword of the messenger of the Lord. [l]