1 Chronicles 21
1 Then Satan stands up against Israel, and persuades David to number Israel,
Now Satan, designing evil against Israel, put into David's mind the impulse to take the number of Israel.
2 and David says to Joab and to the heads of the people, “Go, number Israel from Beer-Sheba even to Dan, and bring [the account] to me, and I know their 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 And Joab says, “YHWH adds to His people as they are one hundred times; are they not, my lord, O king, all of them for servants to my lord? Why does my lord seek this? Why is he for a cause of guilt to Israel?”
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 And the word of the king [is] severe against Joab, and Joab goes out, and goes up and down in all Israel, and comes 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 Joab gives the account of the numbering of the people to David, and all Israel is one million and one hundred thousand, each drawing sword, and Judah [is] four hundred and seventy thousand, each drawing sword.
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 And he has not numbered Levi and Benjamin in their midst, for the word of the king was abominable with Joab.
But Levi and Benjamin were not numbered among them, for Joab was disgusted with the king's order.
7 And it is evil in the eyes of God concerning this thing, and He strikes Israel,
And God was not pleased with this thing; so he sent punishment on Israel.
8 and David says to God, “I have sinned exceedingly in that I have done this thing; and now, please cause the iniquity of Your servant to pass away, for I have acted very foolishly.”
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 And YHWH speaks to Gad, seer of David, saying,
Then the word of the Lord came to Gad, David's seer, saying,
10 “Go, and you have spoken to David, saying, Thus said YHWH: I am extending three [choices] to you; choose one of these for yourself, and I do [it] 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 And Gad comes to David and says to him, “Thus said YHWH: Take for yourself—
So Gad came to David and said to him, The Lord says, Take whichever you will:
12 either famine for three years, or three months to be consumed from the face of your adversaries (even [for] the sword of your enemies to overtake), or three days of the sword of YHWH (even pestilence in the land, and a messenger of YHWH destroying in all the border of Israel); and now, see; what word do I return to Him who is sending 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 And David says to Gad, “I am greatly distressed, please let me fall into the hand of YHWH, for His mercies [are] very many, and do not let me fall into the hand of man.”
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 And YHWH gives a pestilence in Israel, and there falls from Israel seventy thousand men,
So the Lord sent disease on Israel, causing the death of seventy thousand men.
15 and God sends a messenger to Jerusalem to destroy it, and as he is destroying, YHWH has seen, and is comforted concerning the calamity, and says to the messenger who [is] destroying, “Enough now, cease your hand.” And the messenger of YHWH is standing by 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 and David lifts up his eyes, and sees the messenger of YHWH standing between the earth and the heavens, and his sword [is] drawn in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem, and David falls, and the elderly, covered with sackcloth, 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 And David says to God, “Did I not command to number the people? Indeed, it [is] I who have sinned, and done great evil: and these, the flock, what did they do? O YHWH, my God, please let Your hand be on me, and on the house of my father, and not on Your people—to be plagued.”
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 And the messenger of YHWH commanded to Gad to say to David, “Surely David goes up to raise an altar to YHWH in 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 And David goes up by the word of Gad, that he spoke in the Name of YHWH.
And David went up, as Gad had said in the name of the Lord.
20 And Ornan turns back and sees the messenger, and his four sons [are] with him hiding themselves, and Ornan is threshing wheat.
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 And David comes to Ornan, and Ornan looks attentively and sees David, and goes out from the threshing-floor, and bows himself to David—face to the earth.
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 And David says to Ornan, “Give the place of the threshing-floor to me, and I build an altar to YHWH in it; give it to me for full price, and the plague is restrained from the people.”
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 And Ornan says to David, “Take [it] to yourself, and my lord the king does that which is good in his eyes; see, I have given the oxen for burnt-offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for a present; I have given the whole.”
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 And King David says to Ornan, “No, for I surely buy [it] for full price; for I do not lift up that which is yours to YHWH, so as to offer a burnt-offering without cost.”
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 And David gives to Ornan six hundred shekels of gold [in] weight for the place;
So David gave Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place.
26 and David builds an altar to YHWH there, and offers burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, and calls to YHWH, and He answers him from the heavens with fire on the altar of the 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 And YHWH speaks to the messenger, and he turns back his sword to its sheath.
Then the Lord gave orders to the angel, and he put back his sword into its cover.
28 At that time, when David sees that YHWH has answered him in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he 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 and the Dwelling Place of YHWH that Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt-offering, [are] at that time at a 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 and David is not able to go before it to seek God, for he has been afraid because of the sword of the messenger of YHWH.
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.
