Historical

Chapter 21

David’s Census; the Plague. ^1 (A)A satan^[a] rose up against Israel, and he incited David to take a census of Israel.^{(B) 2} David therefore said to Joab and to the other generals of the army, “Go, number the Israelites from Beer-sheba to Dan, and report back to me that I may know their number.” ³ But Joab replied: “May the Lord increase his people a hundredfold! My lord king, are not all of them my lord’s subjects? Why does my lord seek to do this thing? Why should he bring guilt upon Israel?” ⁴ However, the king’s command prevailed over Joab, who departed and traversed all of Israel, and then returned to Jerusalem. ⁵ Joab reported the census figures to David: of men capable of wielding a sword, there were in all Israel one million one hundred thousand, and in Judah four hundred and seventy thousand. ⁶ Levi and Benjamin, however, he did not include in the census, for the king’s command was repugnant to Joab.^{(C) 7} This command was evil in the sight of God, and he struck Israel. ⁸ Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly in doing this thing. Take away your servant’s guilt, for I have acted very foolishly.”

⁹ Then the Lord spoke to Gad, David’s seer, in these words:^{(D) 10} Go, tell David: Thus says the Lord: I am laying out three options; choose one of them, and I will inflict it on you. ¹¹ Accordingly, Gad went to David and said to him: “Thus says the Lord: Decide now— ¹² will it be three years of famine; or three months of fleeing your enemies, with the sword of your foes ever at your back; or three days of the Lord’s own sword, a plague in the land, with the Lord’s destroying angel in every part of Israel? Now consider: What answer am I to give him who sent me?” ¹³ Then David said to Gad: “I am in serious trouble. But let me fall into the hand of the Lord, whose mercy is very great, rather than into hands of men.”

¹⁴ Therefore the Lord sent a plague upon Israel, and seventy thousand Israelites died. ¹⁵ God also sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; but as the angel was on the point of destroying it, the Lord saw and changed his mind about the calamity, and said to the destroying angel, “Enough now! Stay your hand!”^(E)

Ornan’s Threshing Floor. The angel of the Lord was then standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ¹⁶ When David raised his eyes, he saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, drawn sword in hand stretched out against Jerusalem.^(F) David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell face down, ¹⁷ and David prayed to God: “Was it not I who ordered the census of the people? I am the one who sinned, I did this wicked thing. But these sheep, what have they done? O Lord, my God, strike me and my father’s family, but do not afflict your people with this plague!”

¹⁸ Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to tell David to go up and set up an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.^{(G) 19} David went up at the word of Gad, which he spoke in the name of the Lord. ²⁰ Ornan turned around and saw the king; his four sons who were with him hid themselves, but Ornan kept on threshing wheat. ²¹ But as David came toward Ornan, he looked up and saw that it was David, and left the threshing floor and bowed down before David, his face to the ground. ²² David said to Ornan: “Sell me the site of this threshing floor, that I may build on it an altar to the Lord. Sell it to me at its full price, that the plague may be withdrawn from the people.” ²³ But Ornan said to David: “Take it as your own, and let my lord the king do what is good in his sight. See, I also give you the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I give it all to you.” ²⁴ But King David replied to Ornan: “No! I will buy it from you properly, at its full price. I will not take what is yours for the Lord, nor bring burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” ²⁵ So David paid Ornan six hundred shekels of gold^[b] for the place.

Altar for Burnt Offerings. ²⁶ David then built an altar there to the Lord, and sacrificed burnt offerings and communion offerings. He called upon the Lord, who answered him by sending down fire from heaven upon the altar for burnt offerings.^{(H) 27} Then the Lord gave orders to the angel to return his sword to its sheath.

²⁸ Once David saw that the Lord had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he continued to offer sacrifices there. ²⁹ The tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar for burnt offerings were at that time on the high place at Gibeon.^{(I) 30} But David could not go into his presence to inquire of God, for he was fearful of the sword of the angel of the Lord.

Chapter 22

¹ Thus David said, “This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar for burnt offerings for Israel.”^{(J) 2 [c]}David then ordered that the resident aliens in the land of Israel should be brought together, and he appointed them stonecutters to hew out stone blocks for building the house of God.^{(K) 3} David also laid up large stores of iron to make nails for the doors of the gates, and clamps, together with so much bronze that it could not be weighed,^{(L) 4} and cedar trees without number. The Sidonians and Tyrians brought great stores of cedar logs to David.^{(M) 5} David said: “My son Solomon is young and inexperienced; but the house that is to be built for the Lord must be made so magnificent that it will be renowned and glorious in all lands. Therefore I will make preparations for it.” Thus before his death David laid up materials in abundance.^(N)

Charge to Solomon. ⁶ Then he summoned his son Solomon and commanded him to build a house for the Lord, the God of Israel. ^7 (O)David said to Solomon: “My son, it was my purpose to build a house myself for the name of the Lord, my God. ⁸ But this word of the Lord came to me: You have shed much blood, and you have waged great wars. You may not build a house for my name, because you have shed too much blood upon the earth in my sight. ⁹ However, a son will be born to you. He will be a peaceful man, and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side. For Solomon shall be his name, and in his time I will bestow peace^[d] and tranquility on Israel.^{(P) 10} It is he who shall build a house for my name; he shall be a son to me, and I will be a father to him,^(Q) and I will establish the throne of his kingship over Israel forever.

¹¹ “Now, my son, the Lord be with you, and may you succeed in building the house of the Lord your God, as he has said you shall. ¹² But may the Lord give you prudence and discernment when he gives you command over Israel, so that you keep the law of the Lord, your God. ¹³ Only then shall you succeed, if you are careful to observe the statutes and ordinances which the Lord commanded Moses for Israel. Be strong and steadfast; do not fear or be dismayed.^{(R) 14} See, with great effort I have laid up for the house of the Lord a hundred thousand talents of gold,^[e] a million talents of silver, and bronze and iron in such great quantities that they cannot be weighed. I have also laid up wood and stones, to which you must add.^{(S) 15} Moreover, you have available workers, stonecutters, masons, carpenters, and experts in every craft, ¹⁶ without number, skilled with gold, silver, bronze, and iron. Set to work, therefore, and the Lord be with you!”

Charge to the Officials. ¹⁷ David also commanded all of the officials of Israel to help his son Solomon: ¹⁸ “Is not the Lord your God with you? Has he not given you rest on every side? Indeed, he has delivered the inhabitants of the land into my power, and the land is subdued before the Lord and his people.^{(T) 19} Therefore, devote your hearts and souls to seeking the Lord your God. Proceed to build the sanctuary of the Lord God, that the ark of the covenant of the Lord and God’s sacred vessels may be brought into the house built for the name of the Lord.”^(U)

Chapter 23

The Levitical Divisions. ¹ When David had grown old and was near the end of his days, he made his son Solomon king over Israel.^{(V) 2} He then gathered together all the officials of Israel, along with the priests and the Levites.

³ The Levites thirty years old and above were counted, and their total number was found to be thirty-eight thousand.^{(W) 4} Of these, twenty-four thousand were to direct the service of the house of the Lord, six thousand were to be officials and judges, ⁵ four thousand were to be gatekeepers,^(X) and four thousand were to praise the Lord with the instruments which [David] had devised for praise. ⁶ David apportioned them into divisions according to the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.^(Y)

⁷ To the Gershonites belonged Ladan and Shimei. ⁸ The sons of Ladan: Jehiel the chief, then Zetham and Joel; three in all.^{(Z) 9} The sons of Shimei were Shelomoth, Haziel, and Haran; three. These were the heads of the families of Ladan. ¹⁰ The sons of Shimei were Jahath, Zizah, Jeush, and Beriah; these were the sons of Shimei, four in all. ¹¹ Jahath was the chief and Zizah was second to him; but Jeush and Beriah had few sons, and therefore they were classed as a single family, exercising a single office.

¹² The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel; four in all.^{(AA) 13} The sons of Amram were Aaron and Moses. Aaron was set apart to be consecrated as most holy, he and his sons forever, to offer sacrifice before the Lord, to minister to him, and to bless in his name forever.^{(AB) 14} As for Moses, however, the man of God, his sons were counted as part of the tribe of Levi. ¹⁵ The sons of Moses were Gershom and Eliezer.^{(AC) 16} The sons of Gershom: Shubael the chief.^{(AD) 17} The sons of Eliezer were Rehabiah the chief—Eliezer had no other sons, but the sons of Rehabiah were very numerous. ¹⁸ The sons of Izhar: Shelomith the chief. ¹⁹ The sons of Hebron: Jeriah, the chief, Amariah, the second, Jahaziel, the third, and Jekameam, the fourth.^{(AE) 20} The sons of Uzziel: Micah, the chief, and Isshiah, the second.^(AF)

²¹ The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. The sons of Mahli: Eleazar and Kish.^{(AG) 22} Eleazar died leaving no sons, only daughters; the sons of Kish, their kinsmen, married them.^{(AH) 23} The sons of Mushi: Mahli, Eder, and Jeremoth; three in all.^(AI)

²⁴ These were the sons of Levi according to their ancestral houses, the family heads as they were enrolled one by one according to their names. They performed the work of the service of the house of the Lord beginning at twenty years of age.^(AJ)

²⁵ David said: “The Lord, the God of Israel, has given rest to his people, and has taken up his dwelling in Jerusalem forever.^{(AK) 26} Henceforth the Levites need not carry the tabernacle or any of the equipment for its service.”^{(AL) 27} For by David’s last words the Levites were enlisted from the time they were twenty years old. ²⁸ Their duty is to assist the sons of Aaron in the service of the house of the Lord, having charge of the courts, the chambers, and the preservation of everything holy: they take part in the service of the house of God. ²⁹ They also have charge of the showbread, of the fine flour for the grain offering, of the wafers of unleavened bread, and of the baking and mixing, and of all measures of quantity and size.^{(AM) 30} They are to be present every morning to offer thanks and to praise the Lord, and likewise in the evening;^{(AN) 31} and at every sacrifice of burnt offerings to the Lord on sabbaths, new moons, and feast days, in such numbers as are prescribed, they must always be present before the Lord^{(AO) 32} and observe what is prescribed for them concerning the tent of meeting, the sanctuary, and the sons of Aaron, their kinsmen, in the service of the house of the Lord.^(AP)