1 ChroniclesChapter 21

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¹Then Satan rose up against Israel. He stirred up David to count the people of Israel. ²So David said to Joab and the army commanders, "Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then bring me a report so I will know how many there are." ³But Joab answered, "May the LORD make his troops 100 times as many as they are! My lord the king, aren't they all your servants? Why do you want to do this? Why should you bring guilt on Israel?" ⁴But the king's command won out over Joab. So Joab left and went all through Israel. Then he came back to Jerusalem. ⁵Joab gave David the total number of fighting men. In all Israel there were 1,100,000 men who could use a sword. This included 470,000 in Judah. ⁶But Joab did not count Levi and Benjamin, because he hated the king's command. ⁷God also saw this command as evil. So he struck Israel. ⁸Then David said to God, "I have sinned greatly by doing this. Now I beg you, take away your servant's sin, for I have been very foolish." ⁹Then the LORD spoke to Gad, David's seer. He said, ¹⁰"Go and tell David, 'This is what the LORD says: I am giving you three choices. Choose one of them, and I will do it to you.'" ¹¹So Gad went to David and said to him, "This is what the LORD says: 'Choose one of these.' ¹²'Three years of famine. Or three months of being swept away by your enemies while their swords catch you. Or three days of the sword of the LORD. Those would be days of plague in the land, with the angel of the LORD destroying every part of Israel.' Now decide what answer I should take back to the one who sent me." ¹³David said to Gad, "I am in deep trouble. Please let me fall into the hands of the LORD, for his mercy is very great. But don't let me fall into the hands of men." ¹⁴So the LORD sent a plague on Israel. And 70,000 men of Israel died. ¹⁵Then God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But as the angel was doing it, the LORD saw it and changed his mind about the disaster. He said to the angel who was destroying the people, "Enough! Pull back your hand now!" At that moment the angel of the LORD was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ¹⁶David looked up and saw the angel of the LORD standing between heaven and earth. The angel held a drawn sword in his hand. It was stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, dressed in sackcloth, fell with their faces to the ground. ¹⁷David said to God, "Wasn't I the one who gave the order to count the people? I am the one who has sinned and done wrong. But these are like sheep. What have they done? LORD my God, please let your hand strike me and my father's family. But don't let this plague stay on your people." ¹⁸Then the angel of the LORD told Gad to tell David something. David was to go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ¹⁹So David went up. He obeyed the word Gad had spoken in the name of the LORD. ²⁰Ornan was threshing wheat. He turned and saw the angel. His four sons who were with him hid. ²¹Then David came to Ornan. Ornan looked out and saw David. So he left the threshing floor and bowed down to David with his face to the ground. ²²David said to Ornan, "Let me have the land where this threshing floor is. I want to build an altar to the LORD here. Sell it to me for the full price. Then the plague on the people will stop." ²³Ornan said to David, "Take it! May my lord the king do whatever he thinks is good. Look, I will give you the oxen for the burnt offerings. I will give the threshing sledges for the wood and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give it all." ²⁴But King David answered, "No. I must pay the full price. For I will not take what is yours and give it to the LORD. I will not offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing." ²⁵So David paid Ornan 600 shekels of gold for the land.a ²⁶David built an altar to the LORD there. He offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. He called on the LORD. And the LORD answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering. ²⁷Then the LORD spoke to the angel. And the angel put his sword back into its sheath. ²⁸At that time David saw that the LORD had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. So he offered sacrifices there. ²⁹For the tabernacle of the LORD that Moses had made in the wilderness was at the high place in Gibeon at that time. The altar of burnt offering was there too. ³⁰But David could not go there to ask God for help, because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the LORD.