2 Samuel 24:10-25

New International Version

¹⁰ David was conscience-stricken^(A) after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the Lord, “I have sinned^(B) greatly in what I have done. Now, Lord, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.^(C)”

¹¹ Before David got up the next morning, the word of the Lord had come to Gad^(D) the prophet, David’s seer:^{(E) 12} “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’”

¹³ So Gad went to David and said to him, “Shall there come on you three^[a] years of famine^(F) in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague^(G) in your land? Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”

¹⁴ David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy^(H) is great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”

¹⁵ So the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died.^{(I) 16} When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord relented^(J) concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the Lord^(K) was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

¹⁷ When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the Lord, “I have sinned; I, the shepherd,^[b] have done wrong. These are but sheep.^(L) What have they done?^(M) Let your hand fall on me and my family.”^(N)

David Builds an Altar^(O)

¹⁸ On that day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah^(P) the Jebusite.” ¹⁹ So David went up, as the Lord had commanded through Gad. ²⁰ When Araunah looked and saw the king and his officials coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.

²¹ Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?”

“To buy your threshing floor,” David answered, “so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped.”^(Q)

²² Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever he wishes and offer it up. Here are oxen^(R) for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. ²³ Your Majesty, Araunah^[c] gives^(S) all this to the king.” Araunah also said to him, “May the Lord your God accept you.”

²⁴ But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”^(T)

So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels^[d](U) of silver for them. ²⁵ David built an altar^(V) to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Lord answered his prayer^(W) in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.