| 1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number
Israel. 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. 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 doth my lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of
guilt unto Israel? 4 Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab.
Wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to
Jerusalem. 5 And Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people unto
David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and a hundred thousand
men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand
men that drew sword. 6 But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them;
for the king's word was abominable to Joab. 7 And God was displeased with
this thing; therefore he smote Israel. 8 And David said unto God, I have
sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing: but now, put away, I beseech
thee, the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.
9 And Jehovah spake unto Gad, David's seer, saying, 10 Go and speak
unto David, saying, Thus saith Jehovah, I offer thee three things: choose
thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. 11 So Gad came to David, and
said unto him, Thus saith Jehovah, Take which thou wilt: 12 either three
years of famine; or three months to be consumed before thy foes, while the
sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of
Jehovah, even pestilence in the land, and the angel of Jehovah destroying
throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I
shall return to him that sent me. 13 And David said unto Gad, I am in a
great strait: let me fall, I pray, into the hand of Jehovah; for very great
are his mercies: and let me not fall into the hand of man. 14 So Jehovah
sent a pestilence upon Israel; and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
15 And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was about
to destroy, Jehovah beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the
destroying angel, It is enough; now stay thy hand. And the angel of Jehovah
was standing by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 16 And David
lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel 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. 17 And
David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered?
even I it is that have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what
have they done? let thy hand, I pray thee, O Jehovah my God, be against me,
and against my father's house; but not against thy people, that they should
be plagued.
18 Then the angel of Jehovah commanded Gad to say to David, that David
should go up, and rear an altar unto Jehovah in the threshing-floor of Ornan
the Jebusite. 19 And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spake in
the name of Jehovah. 20 And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his
four sons that were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.
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.
22 Then David said to Ornan, Give me the place of this threshing-floor,
that I may build thereon an altar unto Jehovah: for the full price shalt thou
give it me, that the plague may be stayed from the people. 23 And Ornan
said unto David, Take it to thee, and let my lord the king do that which is
good in his eyes: lo, I give thee the oxen for burnt-offerings, and
the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal-offering; I
give it all. 24 And king David said to Ornan, Nay; but I will verily buy
it for the full price: for I will not take that which is thine for Jehovah,
nor offer a burnt-offering without cost. 25 So David gave to Ornan for the
place six hundred shekels of gold by weight. 26 And David built there an
altar unto 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. 27 And Jehovah commanded the angel; and he put up his
sword again into the sheath thereof.
28 At that time, when David saw that Jehovah had answered him in the
threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there. 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. 30 But
David could not go before it to inquire of God; for he was afraid because of
the sword of the angel of Jehovah.
Genesis - Public
Domain
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