I Chronicles 21 · The Lantern

David’s Military Census

And an adversary stood up against Israel, and incited David to count Israel.

And David said to Joab and to the commanders of the people: “Go, count Israel from Beersheba to Dan; and bring it to me, that I may know their number.”

And Joab said: “May the LORD add to his people a hundred times what they are! My lord the king, are they not all of them servants of my lord? Why does my lord seek this? Why should it become guilt for Israel?”

But the word of the king prevailed over Joab. And Joab went out and went about through all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.

And Joab gave the number of the counting of the people to David. And all Israel was a thousand thousands and a hundred thousand men drawing the sword; and Judah, four hundred and seventy thousand men drawing the sword.

But Levi and Benjamin he did not count among them — for the word of the king was abhorrent to Joab.

Judgment for David’s Sin

And it was evil in the eyes of God, this thing; and he struck Israel.

And David said to God: “I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. And now, take away, please, the iniquity of your servant — for I have acted very foolishly.”

And the LORD spoke to Gad, the seer of David, saying:

“Go, and you shall speak to David, saying: Thus says the LORD: Three things I am holding out over you. Choose for yourself one of them, and I will do it to you.”

And Gad came to David and said to him: “Thus says the LORD: Take your choice:

either three years of famine; or three months of being swept away before your adversaries, with the sword of your enemies overtaking; or three days of the sword of the LORD — pestilence in the land, with the angel of the LORD destroying through all the territory of Israel. And now, see what word I shall return to the one who sent me.”

And David said to Gad: “I am in great distress. Let me fall, please, into the hand of the LORD, for his compassions are very many; but into the hand of man let me not fall.”

A Plague on Israel

And the LORD sent a pestilence on Israel; and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.

And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; and as he was destroying, the LORD saw, and he relented over the evil, and said to the destroying angel, “Enough. Now let your hand drop.” And the angel of the LORD was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

And David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the LORD standing between the earth and the heavens, with his sword drawn in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem. And David and the elders, covered in sackcloth, fell on their faces.

And David said to God: “Was it not I who said to count the people? I am the one who sinned — I, the shepherd, have surely done the evil. But these, the flock — what have they done? LORD my God, let your hand, please, be against me and against the house of my father — but against your people, not for a plague.”

David Builds an Altar

And the angel of the LORD told Gad to say to David that David should go up to raise an altar to the LORD at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

And David went up at the word of Gad, which he spoke in the name of the LORD.

And Ornan turned and saw the angel; and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.

And David came to Ornan; and Ornan looked and saw David, and went out from the threshing floor, and bowed down to David with his face to the ground.

And David said to Ornan: “Give me the place of the threshing floor, and I will build on it an altar to the LORD. For the full price in silver, give it to me — so that the plague may be held back from the people.”

And Ornan said to David: “Take it for yourself, and let my lord the king do what is good in his eyes. See — I give the oxen for the burnt offerings, and the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I give it all.”

And King David said to Ornan: “No — I will surely buy it for the full price in silver. For I will not carry off what is yours for the LORD, and offer up a burnt offering that costs nothing.”

And David gave Ornan for the place shekels of gold, six hundred by weight.

And David built there an altar to the LORD, and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings; and he called to the LORD, and he answered him with fire from the heavens on the altar of the burnt offering.

And the LORD spoke to the angel, and he returned his sword to its sheath.

At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there.

Now the dwelling place of the LORD, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering, were at that time at the high place at Gibeon;