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David Takes a Census
Satan rose up against Israel and caused David to take a census of the people of Israel.
Satan rose up against Israel and caused David to take a census of the people of Israel.
David Forces a Census
And Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.
And Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.
So David said to Joab and the commanders of the army, “Take a census of all the people of Israel — from Beersheba in the south to Dan in the north — and bring me a report so I may know how many there are.”
And David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, Go, number Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it.
But Joab replied, “May the LORD increase the number of his people a hundred times over! But why, my lord the king, do you want to do this? Are they not all your servants? Why must you cause Israel to sin?”
And Joab said, Jehovah add to his people, how many soever they be, a hundredfold: are they not all, my lord O king, my lord's servants? why does my lord require this thing? why should he become a trespass to Israel?
But the king insisted that they take the census, so Joab traveled throughout all Israel to count the people. Then he returned to Jerusalem
But the king's word prevailed against Joab; and Joab departed, and went through all Israel, and came [again] to Jerusalem.
and reported the number of people to David. There were 1,100,000 warriors in all Israel who could handle a sword, and 470,000 in Judah.
And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to David. And all they of Israel were eleven hundred thousand men that drew sword; and of Judah, four hundred and seventy thousand men that drew sword.
But Joab did not include the tribes of Levi and Benjamin in the census because he was so distressed at what the king had made him do.
But Levi and Benjamin he did not count among them; for the king's word was abominable to Joab.
Judgment for David’s Sin
God was very displeased with the census, and he punished Israel for it.
Judgment for David's Sin
And God was displeased on account of this thing, and he smote Israel.
And God was displeased on account of this thing, and he smote Israel.
Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly by taking this census. Please forgive my guilt for doing this foolish thing.”
And David said to God, I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing; and now, I beseech thee, put away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.
Then the LORD spoke to Gad, David’s seer. This was the message:
And Jehovah spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying,
“Go and say to David, ‘This is what the LORD says: I will give you three choices. Choose one of these punishments, and I will inflict it on you.’”
Go and speak to David saying, Thus saith Jehovah: I offer thee three [things]; choose one of them, that I may do it unto thee.
So Gad came to David and said, “These are the choices the LORD has given you.
And Gad came to David, and said to him, Thus saith Jehovah:
You may choose three years of famine, three months of destruction by the sword of your enemies, or three days of severe plague as the angel of the LORD brings devastation throughout the land of Israel. Decide what answer I should give the LORD who sent me.”
Choose thee, either three years of famine, or three months to be destroyed before thine adversaries while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee, or three days the sword of Jehovah and the pestilence in the land, and the angel of Jehovah destroying through all the borders of Israel. And now consider what word I shall bring again to him that sent me.
“I’m in a desperate situation!” David replied to Gad. “But let me fall into the hands of the LORD, for his mercy is very great. Do not let me fall into human hands.”
And David said to Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall, I pray thee, into the hand of Jehovah, for his mercies are very great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.
So the LORD sent a plague upon Israel, and 70,000 people died as a result.
David's Repentance Spares Jerusalem
And Jehovah sent a pestilence upon Israel; and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
And Jehovah sent a pestilence upon Israel; and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; and as he was destroying, Jehovah beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough; withdraw now thine hand. And the angel of Jehovah stood by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
David looked up and saw the angel of the LORD standing between heaven and earth with his sword drawn, reaching out over Jerusalem. So David and the leaders of Israel put on burlap to show their deep distress and fell face down on the ground.
And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of Jehovah stand between the earth and the heavens, and his sword drawn in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem. And David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.
And David said to God, “I am the one who called for the census! I am the one who has sinned and done wrong! But these people are as innocent as sheep — what have they done? O LORD my God, let your anger fall against me and my family, but do not destroy your people.”
And David said to God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? It is I that have sinned and done evil; but these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, Jehovah my God, be on me and on my father's house; but not on thy people, that they should be smitten.
David Builds an Altar
Then the angel of the LORD told Gad to instruct David to go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
David Builds an Altar
And the angel of Jehovah commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up and rear an altar to Jehovah in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
And the angel of Jehovah commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up and rear an altar to Jehovah in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
So David went up to do what the LORD had commanded him through Gad.
And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he had spoken in the name of Jehovah.
Araunah, who was busy threshing wheat at the time, turned and saw the angel there. His four sons, who were with him, ran away and hid.
And Ornan turned back and saw the angel; and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.
When Araunah saw David approaching, he left his threshing floor and bowed before David with his face to the ground.
And David came to Ornan, and Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshing-floor, and bowed himself to David with [his] face to the ground.
David said to Araunah, “Let me buy this threshing floor from you at its full price. Then I will build an altar to the LORD there, so that he will stop the plague.”
And David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of the threshing-floor, that I may build an altar in it to Jehovah: grant it to me for the full money, that the plague may be stayed from the people.
“Take it, my lord the king, and use it as you wish,” Araunah said to David. “I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, and the threshing boards for wood to build a fire on the altar, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give it all to you.”
And Ornan said to David, Take it to thee, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his sight: see, I give the oxen for the burnt-offering, and the threshing-sledges for wood, and the wheat for the oblation; I give it all.
But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on buying it for the full price. I will not take what is yours and give it to the LORD. I will not present burnt offerings that have cost me nothing!”
And king David said to Ornan, No; but I will in any case buy [them] for the full money; for I will not take that which is thine for Jehovah, to offer up a burnt-offering without cost.
And David gave to Ornan for the place in shekels of gold the weight of six hundred [shekels].
David built an altar there to the LORD and sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings. And when David prayed, the LORD answered him by sending fire from heaven to burn up the offering on the altar.
And David built there an altar to Jehovah, and offered up burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, and called upon Jehovah; and he answered him from the heavens by fire upon the altar of burnt-offering.
Then the LORD spoke to the angel, who put the sword back into its sheath.
And Jehovah spoke to the angel; and he put up his sword again into its sheath.
When David saw that the LORD had answered his prayer, he offered sacrifices there at Araunah’s threshing floor.
At that time when David saw that Jehovah had answered him in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.
At that time the Tabernacle of the LORD and the altar of burnt offering that Moses had made in the wilderness were located at the place of worship in Gibeon.
And the tabernacle of Jehovah, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt-offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon.