2 Samuel 24

Again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go, count Israel and Judah.” The king said to Joab, the commander of the army who was with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and count the people, so that I may know the number of the people.” Joab said to the king, “May the LORD your God multiply the people a hundredfold, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king desire this?” The king’s command prevailed over Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the army commanders went out from the king’s presence to count the people of Israel. They crossed the Jordan and camped at Aroer, south of the city in the middle of the ravine of Gad, toward Jazer. They came to Gilead and the land of Tahtim-hodshi, then to Dan-jaan and around to Sidon. They came to the fortress of Tyre and all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites. Then they went out to the Negev of Judah, to Beersheba. They traveled through the whole land and came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. Joab gave the king the result of the count of the people. In Israel there were eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and in Judah five hundred thousand men. David’s heart troubled him after he had counted the people. David said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, LORD, please take away the guilt of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.” When David rose in the morning, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer: “Go and say to David, ‘This is what the LORD says: I offer you three things. Choose one of them, and I will do it to you.’” Gad came to David, told him the message and said, “Shall seven years of famine come upon you in your land, or three months of fleeing before your enemies as they pursue you, or three days of plague in your land? Now consider and decide what answer I should take back to the one who sent me.” David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for his mercies are great, but let me not fall into human hands.” So the LORD sent a plague on Israel from morning until the appointed time. From Dan to Beersheba, seventy thousand men of the people died. When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented concerning the disaster. He said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Now withdraw your hand.” The angel of the LORD was beside the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. When David saw the angel striking the people, he said to the LORD, “I am the one who has sinned and done wrong. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me and my father’s house.” That day Gad came to David and said, “Go up and set up an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” David went up according to Gad’s word, as the LORD had commanded. Araunah looked out and saw the king and his servants coming toward him. Araunah went out and bowed before the king with his face to the ground. Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you and build an altar to the LORD, so that the plague may be stopped among the people.” Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer what seems good to him. Here are the oxen for the burnt offering, and the threshing sledges and oxen’s equipment for wood. All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” Then Araunah said to the king, “May the LORD your God accept you.” But the king said to Araunah, “No, I will certainly buy it from you for a price. I will not offer to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for about twenty ounces of silver. David built an altar to the LORD there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. The LORD answered the plea for the land, and the plague was stopped in Israel.

Rights and attribution