Old Testament · History

1 Chronicles chapter 21

An stood up against and persuaded David to the people of Israel.So David said to and the commanders of the troops, “Go count Israel from all the way to , then bring me a report so I can know how many there are.”But Joab replied, “May multiply his people a hundred times over! My master the king—aren’t they all already your servants? Why does my master want to do this? Why bring on Israel?”But the king’s word overruled Joab. So Joab left and traveled throughout all of Israel, then came back to .Joab reported the total count of the people to David: all Israel had 1,100,000 , and had 470,000 men who could handle a sword.But Joab did not include and in the count, because the king’s command him.This whole matter was in God’s sight, so he Israel.David said to God, “I have made a in what I’ve done. But now, please take away your servant’s , because I have acted very .”Yahweh spoke to , David’s , saying:“Go tell David, ‘This is what Yahweh says: I’m giving you three options. Choose one of them, and I will carry it out against you.’”So Gad went to David and told him, “This is what Yahweh says: ‘Take your pick—either three years of , or three months of being swept away by your enemies while they cut you down with their swords, or three days of Yahweh’s own sword—a devastating across the land, with bringing destruction throughout all of Israel’s territory.’ Now decide what answer I should bring back to the one who sent me.”David said to Gad, “I’m in terrible . Let me fall into Yahweh’s hands, because his is very great—but don’t let me fall into human hands.”So Yahweh sent a plague on Israel, and people from Israel died.Then God sent a messenger to Jerusalem to destroy it, but as the messenger was destroying, Yahweh saw it, from the disaster, and said to the messenger who was destroying, “Enough! Pull back your hand now.” The messenger of Yahweh was standing at the of the .David looked up and saw the messenger of Yahweh standing between earth and sky, with a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the , covered in , .David said to God, “Wasn’t it I who ordered the people to be counted? I am the one who has . I am the one who has done this . But these people—they’re just the ! What have they done? Yahweh, my God, please—let your hand fall on me and my father’s family, but don’t let this plague stay on your people.”Then the messenger of Yahweh told Gad to tell David that he should go up and build an to Yahweh on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.So David went up, following the word that Gad had spoken in Yahweh’s name.Ornan turned around and saw the messenger, and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.When David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David. He came out from the threshing floor and bowed down to David with his face to the ground.David said to Ornan, “Give me the site of this threshing floor so I can build an altar to Yahweh on it. Sell it to me for the , so this plague on the people can be stopped.”Ornan said to David, “Take it! Let my master the king do whatever seems good to him. Look—I’ll give the oxen for the , the for firewood, and the wheat for the . I’ll give it all.”But King David said to Ornan, “No—I insist on buying it for the full price. I won’t take what is yours for Yahweh, and I won’t offer burnt offerings that .”So David paid Ornan by weight for the site.David built an altar there to Yahweh and offered burnt offerings and . He called on Yahweh, and Yahweh answered him with on the altar of burnt offering.Then Yahweh gave a command to the messenger, and he put his sword back in its sheath.At that time, when David saw that Yahweh had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there.Now the of Yahweh that Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering, were at that time at the in .But David could not go before it to , because he was of the sword of Yahweh’s messenger.