The Anselm Project

Chapter 21

¹ And an adversary stood up against Israel and incited David to count Israel. ² And David said to Joab and to the chiefs of the people, "Go, number Israel from Beer-sheba to Dan, and bring the number to me, so that I will know their number." ³ And Joab said, "May the LORD add to his people like them a hundred times! Is it not, my lord the king, all of them to my lord the king, to servants? Why does my lord seek this? Why should it be guilt to Israel?" ⁴ And the word of the king prevailed upon Joab, and Joab went out and traveled through all Israel and came to Jerusalem. ⁵ And Joab gave the number of the people to David. And all Israel had one million one hundred thousand men who drew the sword, and Judah four hundred seventy thousand men who drew the sword. ⁶ And he did not muster Levi and Benjamin among them, for the word of the king was an abomination to Joab. ⁷ And this word was evil in the eyes of God, and he struck Israel. ⁸ And David said to God, "I have sinned very much in that I have done this thing, and now please pass over your servant's iniquity, for I have acted the fool very much." ⁹ And the LORD spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying: ¹⁰ Go and speak to David, saying, "Thus says the LORD: I am stretching out three over you; choose one of these for yourself, and I will do it to you." ¹¹ And Gad came to David and said to him, "Thus says the LORD: 'Choose for yourself.'" ¹² either three years of famine, or three months being swept away from before your adversary and the sword of your enemy, to destruction, or three days the sword of the LORD and pestilence in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying in all the territory of Israel. And now, see what word I shall return to the messenger. ¹³ And he said to Gad, "This is very difficult for me; let it fall into the hand of the LORD, for his many compassions are very great, but let it not fall into the hand of man." ¹⁴ And the LORD sent a plague in Israel, and seventy thousand men fell in Israel. ¹⁵ And God sent a messenger to Jerusalem to destroy it, and as he was destroying, the LORD saw and regretted the evil and said to the destroying messenger, "Enough now! Slacken your hand!" And the messenger of the LORD was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ¹⁶ And David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the LORD standing between the land and the heavens, and his sword drawn and stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, covered with sackcloth, fell on their faces. ¹⁷ And David said to God, "Is it not I who said to count the people? And I—I am the one who sinned and did evil. These—the flock—what have they done? LORD my God, let your hand be now on me and on the house of my father and on your people—not to plague." ¹⁸ And the angel of the LORD said to Gad, telling him to say to David: "David shall go up to raise an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite." ¹⁹ And he went up according to the word of Gad, which he had spoken in the name of the LORD. ²⁰ And Ornan turned and saw the angel and his four sons with him hiding, and Ornan was threshing wheat. ²¹ And David came as far as Araunah. And as Araunah looked out, he saw David, and he went out from the threshing floor and prostrated himself before David with his face to the ground. ²² And David said to Araunah, "Give me the place of the threshing floor, and I will build on it an altar to the LORD at full silver price; give it to me, and the plague will stop from upon the people." ²³ And Araunah said to David, "Take it for yourself, and let my lord the king do what is good in his eyes. See, I have given the cattle for the burnt offering and the threshing sledges for wood and the wheat for the grain offering; I have given everything." ²⁴ And King David said to Ornan, "No, for I will surely buy it for the full price in silver, for I will not take what is yours for the LORD and offer up a burnt offering free of charge." ²⁵ And he gave to Araunah in the place the weight of gold that I weighed: six hundred shekels. ²⁶ And David built an altar to the LORD there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. He called to the LORD, and the LORD answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering. ²⁷ And the LORD commanded the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath. ²⁸ At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, he sacrificed there. ²⁹ And the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering at that time were at the high place in Gibeon. ³⁰ And David could not go before him to seek God, for he was terrified by the sight of the sword of the angel of the LORD.

Chapter 22

¹ And David said, "This is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar for burnt offering for Israel."

1 Chronicles

David’s Census, Plague, and Purchase of the Temple Site