21 And ^[a]Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel. ² And David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, Go, number Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan; and bring me word, that I may know the sum of them. ³ And Joab said, Jehovah make his people a hundred times as many as they are: but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? why doth my lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of guilt unto Israel? ⁴ Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem. ⁵ And Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and a hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword. ⁶ But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them; for the king’s word was abominable to Joab. ⁷ And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel. ⁸ And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing: but now, put away, I beseech thee, the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.

⁹ And Jehovah spake unto Gad, David’s seer, saying, ¹⁰ Go and speak unto David, saying, Thus saith Jehovah, I ^[b]offer thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. ¹¹ So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith Jehovah, Take which thou wilt: ¹² either three years of famine; or three months to be consumed before thy foes, while the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of Jehovah, ^[c]even pestilence in the land, and the angel of Jehovah destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him that sent me. ¹³ And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall, I pray, into the hand of Jehovah; for very ^[d]great are his mercies: and let me not fall into the hand of man. ¹⁴ So Jehovah sent a pestilence upon Israel; and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men. ¹⁵ And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was about to destroy, Jehovah beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the destroying angel, It is enough; now stay thy hand. And the angel of Jehovah was standing by the threshing-floor of ^[e]Ornan the Jebusite. ¹⁶ And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of Jehovah standing between earth and heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. 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 very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? let thy hand, I pray thee, O Jehovah my God, be against me, and against my father’s house; but not against thy people, that they should be plagued.

¹⁸ Then the angel of Jehovah commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and rear an altar unto Jehovah in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ¹⁹ And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spake in the name of Jehovah. ²⁰ And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons that were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat. ²¹ And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshing-floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground. ²² Then David said to Ornan, Give me the place of this threshing-floor, that I may build thereon an altar unto Jehovah: for the full price shalt thou give it me, that the plague may be stayed from the people. 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 for burnt-offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal-offering; I give it all. 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 Jehovah, nor offer a burnt-offering without cost. ²⁵ So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight. ²⁶ And David built there an altar unto Jehovah, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, and called upon Jehovah; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt-offering. ²⁷ And Jehovah commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof.

²⁸ At that time, when David saw that Jehovah had answered him in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there. ²⁹ For the tabernacle of Jehovah, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of 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 Jehovah.

22 Then David said, This is the house of Jehovah God, and this is the altar of burnt-offering for Israel.

² And David commanded to gather together the sojourners that were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God. ³ And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the couplings; and brass in abundance without weight; ⁴ and cedar-trees without number: for the Sidonians and they of Tyre brought cedar-trees in abundance to David. ⁵ And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for Jehovah must be exceeding magnificent, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I will therefore make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death.

⁶ Then he called for Solomon his son, and charged him to build a house for Jehovah, the God of Israel. ⁷ And David said to Solomon ^[f]his son, As for me, it was in my heart to build a house unto the name of Jehovah my God. ⁸ But the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build a house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight. ⁹ Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about; for his name shall be ^[g]Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days. ¹⁰ He shall build a house for my name; and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever. ¹¹ Now, my son, Jehovah be with thee; and prosper thou, and build the house of Jehovah thy God, as he hath spoken concerning thee. ¹² Only Jehovah give thee discretion and understanding, and give thee charge concerning Israel; that so thou mayest keep the law of Jehovah thy God. ¹³ Then shalt thou prosper, if thou observe to do the statutes and the ordinances which Jehovah charged Moses with concerning Israel: be strong, and of good courage; fear not, neither be dismayed. ¹⁴ Now, behold, in my ^[h]affliction I have prepared for the house of Jehovah a hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver, and of brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and stone have I prepared; and thou mayest add thereto. ¹⁵ Moreover there are workmen with thee in abundance, hewers and workers of stone and timber, and all men that are skilful in every manner of work: ¹⁶ of the gold, the silver, and the brass, and the iron, there is no number. Arise and be doing, and Jehovah be with thee.

¹⁷ David also commanded all the princes of Israel to help Solomon his son, saying, ¹⁸ Is not Jehovah your God with you? and hath he not given you rest on every side? for he hath delivered the inhabitants of the land into my hand; and the land is subdued before Jehovah, and before his people. ¹⁹ Now set your heart and your soul to seek after Jehovah your God; arise therefore, and build ye the sanctuary of Jehovah God, to bring the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, and the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be built to the name of Jehovah.

23 Now David was old and full of days; and he made Solomon his son king over Israel. ² And he gathered together all the princes of Israel, with the priests and the Levites. ³ And the Levites were numbered from thirty years old and upward: and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty and eight thousand. ⁴ Of these, twenty and four thousand were to oversee the work of the house of Jehovah; and six thousand were officers and judges; ⁵ and four thousand were doorkeepers; and four thousand praised Jehovah with the instruments which I made, said David, to praise therewith. ⁶ And David divided them into ^[i]courses according to the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

⁷ Of the Gershonites: ^[j]Ladan and Shimei. ⁸ The sons of Ladan: Jehiel the chief, and Zetham, and Joel, three. ⁹ The sons of Shimei: Shelomoth, and Haziel, and Haran, three. These were the heads of the fathers’ houses of Ladan. ¹⁰ And the sons of Shimei: Jahath, ^[k]Zina, and Jeush, and Beriah. These four were the sons of Shimei. ¹¹ And Jahath was the chief, and Zizah the second: but Jeush and Beriah had not many sons; therefore they became a fathers’ house in one reckoning.

¹² The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, four. ¹³ The sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses; and Aaron was separated, ^[l]that he should sanctify the most holy things, he and his sons, for ever, to burn incense before Jehovah, to minister unto him, and to bless in his name, for ever. ¹⁴ But as for Moses the man of God, his sons were named among the tribe of Levi. ¹⁵ The sons of Moses: Gershom and Eliezer. ¹⁶ The sons of Gershom: ^[m]Shebuel the chief. ¹⁷ And the sons of Eliezer were: Rehabiah the chief; and Eliezer had no other sons; but the sons of Rehabiah were very many. ¹⁸ The sons of Izhar: ^[n]Shelomith the chief. ¹⁹ The sons of Hebron: Jeriah the chief, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, and Jekameam the fourth. ²⁰ The sons of Uzziel: Micah the chief, and Isshiah the second.

²¹ The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. The sons of Mahli: Eleazar and Kish. ²² And Eleazar died, and had no sons, but daughters only: and their brethren the sons of Kish took them to wife. ²³ The sons of Mushi: Mahli, and Eder, and Jeremoth, three.

²⁴ These were the sons of Levi after their fathers’ houses, even the heads of the fathers’ houses of those of them that were counted, in the number of names by their polls, who did the work for the service of the house of Jehovah, from twenty years old and upward. ²⁵ For David said, Jehovah, the God of Israel, hath given rest unto his people; and he dwelleth in Jerusalem for ever: ²⁶ and also the Levites shall no more have need to carry the tabernacle and all the vessels of it for the service thereof. ²⁷ For ^[o]by the last words of David the sons of Levi were numbered, from twenty years old and upward. ²⁸ For ^[p]their office was to wait on the sons of Aaron for the service of the house of Jehovah, in the courts, and in the chambers, and in the purifying of all holy things, even the work of the service of the house of God; ²⁹ for the showbread also, and for the fine flour for a meal-offering, whether of unleavened wafers, or of that which is baked in the pan, or of that which is soaked, and for all manner of measure and size; ³⁰ and to stand every morning to thank and praise Jehovah, and likewise at even; ³¹ and to offer all burnt-offerings unto Jehovah, on the sabbaths, on the new moons, and on the set feasts, in number according to the ordinance concerning them, continually before Jehovah; ³² and that they should keep the charge of the tent of meeting, and the charge of the holy place, and the charge of the sons of Aaron their brethren, for the service of the house of Jehovah.