1 Chronicles 21
1 Satan interfered to cause trouble for Israel. He provoked David to do a census of Israel.
Now Satan, designing evil against Israel, put into David's mind the impulse to take the number of Israel.
2 So David told Joab and the army commanders, “Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so I can have a total number.”
And David said to Joab and the captains of the people, Now let all Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, be numbered; and give me word so that I may be certain of their number.
3 But Joab replied, “May the Lord multiply his people a hundred times over. Your Majesty, aren't they all your subjects? Why do you want to do this? Why should you make Israel guilty?”
And Joab said, May the Lord make his people a hundred times more in number than they are; but, my lord king, are they not all my lord's servants? why would my lord have this done? why will he become a cause of sin to Israel?
4 But the king was adamant so Joab left and went all over Israel. Eventually he returned to Jerusalem,
But the king's word was stronger than Joab's. So Joab went out and went through all Israel and came to Jerusalem.
5 and he gave David the number of people censused. In Israel there were 1,100,000 fighting men who could handle a sword, and 470,000 in Judah.
And Joab gave David the number of all the people; all the men of Israel, able to take up arms, were one million, one hundred thousand men; and those of Judah were four hundred and seventy thousand men, able to take up arms.
6 However, Joab did not include Levi and Benjamin in the census total, because he disagreed with what the king had ordered.
But Levi and Benjamin were not numbered among them, for Joab was disgusted with the king's order.
7 The Lord considered the census a bad thing to do and he punished Israel for it.
And God was not pleased with this thing; so he sent punishment on Israel.
8 Then David said to God, “I have committed a terrible sin by doing this. Please take away the guilt of your servant, for I have been very stupid.”
Then David said to God, Great has been my sin in doing this; but now, be pleased to take away the sin of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.
9 The Lord told Gad, David's seer,
Then the word of the Lord came to Gad, David's seer, saying,
10 “Go and tell David that this is what the Lord says: ‘I'm giving you three options. Choose one of them, and that's what I'll do to you.’”
Go and say to David, The Lord says, Three things are offered to you: say which of them you will have, so that I may do it to you.
11 So Gad went and told David, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Make your choice:
So Gad came to David and said to him, The Lord says, Take whichever you will:
12 either three years of famine; or three months of devastation, running from the swords of your enemies; or three days of the Lord's sword—in other words three days of plague in the land, with an angel of the Lord causing destruction throughout the whole of Israel.’ Now you have to decide how I should reply to the one who sent me.”
Three years when there will not be enough food; or three months of war, when you will go in flight before your haters, being in great danger of the sword; or three days of the sword of the Lord, disease in the land, and the angel of the Lord taking destruction through all the land of Israel. Now give thought to the answer I am to take back to him who sent me.
13 David replied to Gad, “This is an awful situation for me! Please, let the Lord decide my punishment, for he is so merciful. Don't let me be punished by people.”
And David said to Gad, This is a hard decision for me to make: let me come into the hands of the Lord, for great are his mercies: let me not come into the hands of men.
14 So the Lord a plague on Israel, and 70,000 Israelites died.
So the Lord sent disease on Israel, causing the death of seventy thousand men.
15 God also sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But just as the angel was about to destroy it, the Lord saw it, and he relented from causing such a disaster. He told the destroying angel, “That's enough. You can stop now.” Right then the angel of the Lord was standing beside the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
And God sent an angel to Jerusalem for its destruction: and when he was about to do so, the Lord saw, and had regret for the evil, and said to the angel of destruction, It is enough; do no more. Now the angel of the Lord was by the grain-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16 When David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, holding his drawn sword extended over Jerusalem, David and the elders, wearing sackcloth, fell on their faces.
And David, lifting up his eyes, saw the angel of the Lord there between earth and heaven, with an uncovered sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the responsible men, clothed in haircloth, went down on their faces.
17 David said to God, “Wasn't it me who ordered the census of the people? I'm the one who has sinned and acted wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Lord my God, please punish me and my family, but don't punish your people with this plague.”
And David said to God, Was it not I who gave the order for the people to be numbered? It is I who have done the sin and the great wrong; but these are only sheep; what have they done? let your hand, O Lord God, be lifted up against me and against my family, but not against your people to send disease on them.
18 Then the angel of the Lord told Gad to tell David to go and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
Then the angel of the Lord gave orders to Gad to say to David that he was to go and put up an altar to the Lord on the grain-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
19 So David went and did what Gad had told him in the name of the Lord.
And David went up, as Gad had said in the name of the Lord.
20 Ornan was busy threshing wheat. He turned around and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him went and hid.
And Ornan, turning back, saw the angel, and his four sons who were with him went to a secret place. Now Ornan was crushing his grain.
21 When David arrived, Ornan looked out and saw David. He left the threshing floor and bowed down before David with his face to the ground.
And when David came, Ornan, looking, saw him, and came out from the grain-floor and went down on his face to the earth before him.
22 David said to Ornan, “Please let me have the threshing floor. I'll buy it at its full price. Then I can build an altar to the Lord here so that the plague on the people may be stopped.”
Then David said to Ornan, Give me the place where this grain-floor is, so that I may put up an altar here to the Lord: let me have it for its full price; so that this disease may be stopped among the people.
23 “Take it, and Your Majesty can do whatever you want with it,” Ornan told David. “You can have the oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing boards for firewood, and the wheat for a grain offering. I'll give it all to you.”
And Ornan said to David, Take it, and let my lord the king do what seems right to him. See, I give you the oxen for burned offerings and the grain-cleaning instruments for fire-wood, and the grain for the meal offering; I give it all.
24 “No, I insist, I will pay the full price,” replied King David “I won't take for the Lord what is yours or present burnt offerings that didn't cost me anything.”
And King David said to Ornan, No; I will certainly give you the full price for it, because I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or give a burned offering without payment.
25 So David paid Ornan six hundred shekels of gold for the place.
So David gave Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place.
26 David built an altar to the Lord there and presented burnt offerings and friendship offerings. He called on the Lord in prayer, and the Lord answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.
And David put up an altar there to the Lord, offering burned offerings and peace-offerings with prayers to the Lord; and he gave him an answer from heaven, sending fire on the altar of burned offering.
27 Then the Lord told the angel to put his sword back into its sheath.
Then the Lord gave orders to the angel, and he put back his sword into its cover.
28 When David saw that the Lord had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there.
At that time, when David saw that the Lord had given him an answer on the grain-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he made an offering there.
29 At that time the tent of the Lord that Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering, were at the high place in Gibeon.
For the House of the Lord, which Moses had made in the waste land, and the altar of burned offerings, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon.
30 But David did not want to go there to ask God's will, because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord.
But David was not able to go before it to get directions from the Lord, so great was his fear of the sword of the angel of the Lord.
