1 A1 Chr 21:1Now B2 Sam 21:1, 2again the anger of the Loʀᴅ burned against Israel, and it incited David against them to say, “C1 Chr 27:23, 24Go, number Israel and Judah.” 2 The king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him, “Go about now through all the tribes of Israel, AJudg 20:1; 2 Sam 3:10from Dan to Beersheba, and 1Lit musterregister the people, that I may know the number of the people.” 3 But Joab said to the king, “ADeut 1:11Now may the Loʀᴅ your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see; but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?” 4 Nevertheless, the king’s word prevailed against Joab and against the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to 1Lit musterregister the people of Israel. 5 They crossed the Jordan and camped in ADeut 2:36; Josh 13:9, 16Aroer, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad and toward BNum 21:32; 32:35Jazer. 6 Then they came to Gilead and to 1Or Kadesh in the land of the Hittitethe land of Tahtim-hodshi, and they came to Dan-jaan and around to AJosh 19:28; Judg 1:31Sidon, 7 and came to the AJosh 19:29fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the BJosh 11:3; Judg 3:3Hivites and of the Canaanites, and they went out to the south of Judah, to CGen 21:22-33Beersheba. 8 So when they had gone about through the whole land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. 9 And Joab gave ANum 1:44-46the number of the 1Lit musterregistration of the people to the king; and there were in Israel B1 Chr 21:5eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.

10 Now A1 Sam 24:5David’s heart 1Lit smotetroubled him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Loʀᴅ, “B2 Sam 12:13I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Loʀᴅ, please 2Lit cause to pass awaytake away the iniquity of Your servant, for C1 Sam 13:13; 2 Chr 16:9I have acted very foolishly.” 11 When David arose in the morning, the word of the Loʀᴅ came to A1 Sam 22:5; 1 Chr 29:29the prophet Gad, David’s B1 Sam 9:9seer, saying, 12 “Go and speak to David, ‘Thus the Loʀᴅ says, “I am offering you three things; choose for yourself one of them, which I will do to you.” ’ ” 13 So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, “Shall A1 Chr 21:12; Ezek 14:21seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? Now consider and see what answer I shall return to Him who sent me.” 14 Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of the Loʀᴅ APs 51:1; 130:4, 7for His mercies are great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”

15 So A1 Chr 21:14; 27:24the Loʀᴅ 1Lit gavesent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand men of the people B2 Sam 24:2from Dan to Beersheba died. 16 AEx 12:23; 2 Kin 19:35; Acts 12:23When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, BEx 32:14; 1 Sam 15:11the Loʀᴅ relented from the calamity and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough! Now relax your hand!” And the angel of the Loʀᴅ was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 17 Then David spoke to the Loʀᴅ when he saw the angel who was striking down the people, and said, “Behold, A2 Sam 24:10it is I who have sinned, and it is I who have done wrong; but B2 Sam 7:8; Ps 74:1these sheep, what have they done? Please let Your hand be against me and against my father’s house.”

18 So Gad came to David that day and said to him, “A1 Chr 21:18Go up, erect an altar to the Loʀᴅ on the threshing floor of 1In 2 Chr 3:1, OrnanAraunah the Jebusite.” 19 David went up according to the word of Gad, just as the Loʀᴅ had commanded. 20 Araunah looked down and saw the king and his servants crossing over toward him; and Araunah went out and bowed his face to the ground before the king. 21 Then Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” And David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the Loʀᴅ, ANum 16:44-50that the plague may be held back from the people.” 22 Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what is good in his sight. Look, A1 Sam 6:14; 1 Kin 19:21the oxen for the burnt offering, the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. 23  “Everything, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the Loʀᴅ your God AEzek 20:40, 41accept you.” 24 However, the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for AMal 1:13, 14I will not offer burnt offerings to the Loʀᴅ my God 1Lit gratuitouslywhich cost me nothing.” So B1 Chr 21:24, 25David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 25 David built there an altar to the Loʀᴅ and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. A2 Sam 21:14Thus the Loʀᴅ was moved by prayer for the land, and the plague was held back from Israel.