{2Sa 24:1-9; 1Ch 21:1-6 **}
21:1 And Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel. 21:2 And David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, Go, number Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan and bring me word that I may know the sum of them.
21:3 And Joab said, Jehovah make his people a hundred times as many as they are. But, my lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants? Why does my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of guilt to Israel? 21:4 Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab. Therefore Joab departed and went throughout all Israel and came to Jerusalem.
21:5 And Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people to David. And all those of Israel were a million and a hundred thousand men who drew a sword. And Judah was four hundred seventy thousand men who drew a sword. 21:6 But he did not count Levi and Benjamin among them, for the king's word was abominable to Joab.
{2Sa 24:10-17; 1Ch 21:7-17}
21:7 And God was displeased with this thing, therefore he struck Israel. 21:8 And David said to God, I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now, I beseech you, put away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.
21:9 And Jehovah spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying, 21:10 Go and speak to David, saying, Jehovah says thus, I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.
21:11 So Gad came to David and said to him, Jehovah says thus, Take which you will: 21:12 either three years of famine, or three months to be consumed before your foes while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or else three days the sword of Jehovah, even pestilence in the land and the messenger of Jehovah destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I will return to him who sent me.
21:13 And David said to Gad, I am in a great strait. Let me fall, I pray, into the hand of Jehovah, for his mercies are very great and do not let me fall into the hand of man. 21:14 So Jehovah sent a pestilence upon Israel and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
21:15 And God sent a messenger to Jerusalem to destroy it. And as he was about to destroy, Jehovah beheld and he relented of the evil and said to the destroying messenger, It is enough. Now halt your hand. And the messenger of Jehovah was standing by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
21:16 And David lifted up his eyes and saw the messenger of Jehovah standing between earth and heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.
21:17 And David said to God, Is it not I who commanded the people to be numbered? Even I it is who have sinned and done very badly. But these sheep, what have they done? I beseech you, O Jehovah my God, let your hand be against me and against my father's house, but not against your people, that they should be plagued.
{2Sa 24:18-25; 1Ch 21:18-22:19 **}
21:18 Then the messenger of Jehovah commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and rear up an altar to Jehovah in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
21:19 And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in the name of Jehovah. 21:20 And Ornan turned back and saw the messenger and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat. 21:21 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.
21:22 Then David said to Ornan, Give me the place of this threshing-floor, that I may build on it an altar to Jehovah. For the full price you will give it me, that the plague may be stopped from the people.
21:23 And Ornan said to David, Take it to you and let my lord the king do what is good in his eyes. Behold, I give you the oxen for burnt-offerings and the threshing instruments for wood and the wheat for the food-offering. I give it all.
21:24 And king David said to Ornan, No, but I will truly buy it for the full price. Because I will not take what is yours for Jehovah, nor offer a burnt-offering without cost. 21:25 So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight.
21:26 And David built there an altar to Jehovah and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings and called upon Jehovah. And he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt-offering. 21:27And Jehovah commanded the messenger and he put up his sword again into the sheath of it.
21:28 At that time, when David saw that Jehovah had answered him in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there. 21:29 For the tabernacle of Jehovah, which Moses made in the wilderness and the altar of burnt-offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon. 21:30 But David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was afraid because of the sword of the messenger of Jehovah.