David Counts the Fighting Men
21:1 And Satan stood up
against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
21:2 And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the
people, Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and
bring the number of them to me, that I may know it.
21:3 And Joab answered, The LORD make his people an hundred
times so many more as they be: but, my lord the king, are
they not all my lord's servants? why then doth my lord
require this thing? why will he be a cause of trespass to
Israel?
21:4 Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab.
Wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and
came to Jerusalem.
21:5 And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto
David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and
an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four
hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.
21:6 But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for
the king's word was abominable to Joab.
21:7 And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he
smote Israel.
21:8 And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly,
because I have done this thing: but now, I beseech thee, do
away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very
foolishly.
21:9 And the LORD spake unto Gad, David's seer, saying,
21:10 Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the LORD, I
offer thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may
do it unto thee.
21:11 So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith
the LORD, Choose thee
21:12 Either three years' famine; or three months to be
destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine
enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the
LORD, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the
LORD destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now
therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to
him that sent me.
21:13 And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let
me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very great are
his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man.
21:14 So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there
fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
21:15 And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it:
and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented
him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is
enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood
by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
21:16 And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of
the LORD stand between the earth and the heaven, having a
drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then
David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in
sackcloth, fell upon their faces.
21:17 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 evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they
done? let thine hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be on me,
and on my father's house; but not on thy people, that they
should be plagued.
David Builds an Altar
21:18 Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to
David, that David should go up, and set up an altar unto the
LORD in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
21:19 And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he
spake in the name of the LORD.
21:20 And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his
four sons 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 threshingfloor, and bowed himself
to David with his face to the ground.
21:22 Then David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of this
threshingfloor, that I may build an altar therein unto the
LORD: thou shalt grant it me for the full price: that the
plague may be stayed from the people.
21:23 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 also for burnt offerings, and the
threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meat
offering; I give it all.
21:24 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 the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings 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 unto the LORD, and
offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon
the LORD; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the
altar of burnt offering.
21:27 And the LORD commanded the angel; and he put up his
sword again into the sheath thereof.
21:28 At that time when David saw that the LORD had
answered him in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite,
then he sacrificed there.
21:29 For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses made in
the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering, were at
that season in the high place at Gibeon.
21:30 But David could not go before it to enquire of God:
for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the
LORD.
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