1 Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to count Israel. 2 David said to Joab and the leaders of the people, “Go and count Israel from Beersheba to Dan. Bring me the total so I may know their number.” 3 Joab said, “May the LORD make his people a hundred times as many as they are! But, my lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? Why does my lord seek this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?” 4 But the king’s word prevailed over Joab. So Joab went throughout all Israel and returned to Jerusalem. 5 Joab gave David the total of the people counted: in all Israel there were 1,100,000 men who drew the sword, and in Judah 470,000 men who drew the sword. 6 He did not count Levi and Benjamin among them, because the king’s command was abhorrent to Joab. 7 God was displeased with this matter, and he struck Israel.

8 David said to God, “I have sinned greatly in doing this. Now please take away your servant’s guilt, for I have acted very foolishly.”

9 The LORD spoke to Gad, David’s seer: 10 “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the LORD says: I offer you three things. Choose one of them, and I will do it to you.’ ” 11 So Gad came to David and said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Choose for yourself: 12 three years of famine, or three months of being swept away before your foes while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or three days of the sword of the LORD, with plague in the land and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout the territory of Israel.’ Now consider what answer I should take back to the one who sent me.”

13 David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Please let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for his mercies are very great, but do not let me fall into human hands.” 14 So the LORD sent a plague on Israel, and 70,000 men of Israel fell. 15 God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was destroying it, the LORD saw and relented concerning the disaster. He said to the destroying angel, “Enough! Now withdraw your hand.” The angel of the LORD was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

16 David looked up and saw the angel of the LORD standing between earth and heaven, with a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown. 17 David said to God, “Was I not the one who ordered the people counted? I am the one who sinned and did great evil. But these sheep—what have they done? LORD my God, please let your hand be against me and my father’s house, but do not let the plague fall on your people.”

18 The angel of the LORD told Gad to tell David to go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19 David went up at the word of Gad, who had spoken in the name of the LORD. 20 Ornan turned and saw the angel, and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Ornan was threshing wheat. 21 David came to Ornan. When Ornan looked and saw David, he went out from the threshing floor and bowed to David with his face to the ground. 22 David said to Ornan, “Give me the site of this threshing floor so I may build an altar to the LORD on it. Give it to me at the full price, so the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people.” 23 Ornan said to David, “Take it, and let my lord the king do what is good in his sight. Here, I give the oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I give it all.” 24 But King David said to Ornan, “No, I will certainly buy it at the full price. I will not take what is yours for the LORD or offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” 25 So David paid Ornan about fifteen pounds of gold by weight for the site. 26 David built an altar to the LORD there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. He called on the LORD, who answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.

27 The LORD commanded the angel, and he returned his sword to its sheath. 28 At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there. 29 The tabernacle of the LORD that Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering, were then at the high place in Gibeon. 30 But David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was terrified of the sword of the angel of the LORD.