1 Chronicles 21
Revised Geneva Translation
21 And Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to count Israel.
2 Therefore, David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, “Go. Count Israel from Beersheba to Dan and bring it to me, so that I may know the number of them.”
3 And Joab answered, “May the LORD increase His people a hundred times as many as they are, O my lord the king! But, are they not all my lord’s servants? Why does my lord require this thing? Why should he be a cause of offense to Israel?”
4 Nevertheless, the king’s word prevailed against Joab. And Joab departed and went through all Israel and returned to Jerusalem.
5 And Joab gave the number and sum of the people to David. And all Israel numbered one million one hundred thousand men who drew sword. And Judah numbered four hundred seventy thousand men who drew sword.
6 But he did not count the Levites and Benjamin among them; for the king’s word was abominable to Joab.
7 And God was displeased with this thing. Therefore, He struck Israel.
8 Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing. But now, I pray, remove the iniquity of Your servant. For I have acted 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 for you.”’”
11 So Gad came to David, and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Take for yourself
12 ‘either three years of famine or three months to be destroyed before your adversaries with the sword of your enemies taking you, or else the sword of the LORD and pestilence for three days in the land, so that the Angel of the LORD may destroy throughout all the territories of Israel.’ Now, therefore, consider what word I shall bring back to Him who sent me.”
13 And David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let me now fall into the hand of the LORD. For His mercies are exceedingly great. And let me not fall into the hand of man.”
14 So, the LORD sent a pestilence in Israel. And seventy thousand men of Israel fell.
15 And God sent the Angel into Jerusalem, to destroy it. And as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and relented of the misery, and said to the Angel that destroyed, “It is enough now. Let your hand cease.” Then 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 stand between the Earth and the sky, with his sword drawn in his hand and stretched out toward Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.
17 And David said to God, “Is it not I who commanded to count the people? Is it not also I who has sinned and has committed evil” But these sheep, what have they done? O LORD my God, I pray, let Your Hand be on me and on my father’s House, and not on Your people, to their destruction.”
18 Then the Angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and set up an Altar to the LORD in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
19 So David went up according to the saying of Gad which he had spoken in the Name of the LORD.
20 And Ornan turned around and saw the Angel. And his four sons who were with him hid themselves. And Ornan threshed 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 And David said to Ornan, “Give me the space of your threshing floor, so that I may build an Altar in it to the LORD. Give it to me for sufficient money, so that the plague may be removed from the people.”
23 Then Ornan said to David, “Take it for yourself. And let my lord the king do that which seems good to him. Lo, I give you oxen for Burnt Offerings and threshing instruments for wood and wheat for Meat Offering. I give it all.”
24 And King David said to Ornan, “Not so. But I will buy it for sufficient money. For I will not take that which is yours for the LORD, nor offer Burnt Offerings without cost.”
25 So David gave Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for that place.
26 And David built an Altar to the LORD there and offered Burnt Offerings, and Peace Offerings and called upon the LORD. And He answered him by fire from Heaven, upon the Altar of Burnt Offering.
27 And after the LORD had spoken to the Angel, he put away his sword, back into its sheath.
28 At that time, when David saw that the LORD had heard him in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.
29 But the Tabernacle of the LORD which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the Altar of Burnt Offering, were in the high place at Gibeon at that time.
30 And David could not go before it to ask counsel at God. For he was afraid of the sword of the Angel of the LORD.
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