2 Samuel 24

Revised Geneva Translation

24 And the wrath of the LORD was again kindled against Israel. And He moved David against them, in that He said: “Go! Count Israel and Judah.”

² So the king said to Joab, the captain of the army who was with him, “Go speedily now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and count the people, so that I may know the number of the people.”

³ And Joab said to the king, “May the LORD your God increase the people a hundredfold more than they are. And may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king desire this thing?”

⁴ Nevertheless, the king’s word prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the army. Therefore, Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king to count the people of Israel.

⁵ And they passed over Jordan and camped in Aroer, at the right side of the city that is in the midst of the Valley of Gad and toward Jazer.

⁶ Then they came to Gilead and to Tahtim Hodshi. So, they came to Dan Jaan, and so about to Sidon,

⁷ and came to the fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and of the Canaanites and went toward the southern part of Judah, to Beersheba.

⁸ So when they had gone around all the land, they returned to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.

⁹ And Joab delivered the number and sum of the people to the king. And there were eight hundred thousand strong men who drew swords in Israel. And the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.

¹⁰ Then David’s heart struck him, after he had counted the people. And David said to the LORD, “I have sinned exceedingly in what I have done! Therefore now, LORD, I pray, take away the trespass of Your servant! For I have done very foolishly!”

¹¹ And when David was up in the morning, the Word of the LORD came to the Prophet Gad, David’s Seer, saying:

¹² “Go and say to David, ‘Thus says the LORD: “I offer you three things. Choose for yourself which of them I shall do to you.”’”

¹³ So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, “Would you rather that seven years famine come upon you in your land, or would you rather flee for three months before your enemies (they following you) or that there were three days pestilence in my land? Now be advised and consider what answer I shall give to Him Who sent me.”

¹⁴ And David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us fall now into the hand of the LORD (for His mercies are great) and let me not fall into the hand of man.”

¹⁵ So the LORD sent a pestilence in Israel, from the morning to the time appointed. And of the people from Dan to Beersheba, there died seventy thousand men.

¹⁶ And when the Angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem, to destroy it, the LORD relented and said to the Angel that destroyed the people: “It is sufficient. Restrain your hand now.” And the Angel of the LORD was by the threshing place of Araunah the Jebusite.

¹⁷ And David spoke to the LORD (when he saw the Angel that struck the people) and said, “Behold, I have sinned. Yea, I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Please, I pray, let Your hand be against me and against my father’s House.”

¹⁸ So the same day, Gad came to David and said to him, “Go up. Raise an Altar to the LORD in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”

¹⁹ And David (according to the saying of Gad) went up, as the LORD had Commanded.

²⁰ And Araunah looked and saw the king and his servants coming toward him. And Araunah went out and bowed himself before the king, on his face, to the ground.

²¹ And Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” Then David answered, “To buy your threshing floor in order to build an Altar to the LORD, so that the plague may cease from the people.”

²² Then Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer what seems good to him in his eyes. Behold the oxen for the Burnt Offering, and chariots and the instruments of the oxen for wood.”

²³ (All these things Araunah gave to the king, as a king.) And Araunah said to the king, “The LORD your God be favorable to you.”

²⁴ Then the king said to Araunah, “Not so. But I will buy it from you at a price and will not offer Burnt Offering to the LORD my God of that which cost me nothing.” So, David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

²⁵ And David built an Altar to the LORD there and offered Burnt Offerings and Peace Offerings. And the LORD was appeased toward the land. And the plague ceased from Israel.