David Forces a Census

1And the devil stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel. 2And king David said to Joab and to the captains of the forces, Go, number Israel from Bersabee even to Dan, and bring me the account, and I shall know their number. 3And Joab said, May the Lord add to his people, a hundred-fold as many as they are, and let the eyes of my lord the king see it: all are the servants of my lord. Why does my lord seek this thing? do it not, lest it become a sin to Israel. 4Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab; and Joab went out and passed through all Israel, and came to Jerusalem. 5And Joab gave the number of the mustering of the people to David: and all Israel was a million and a hundred thousand men that drew sword: and the sons of Juda were four hundred and seventy thousand men that drew sword. 6But he numbered not Levi and Benjamin among them; for the word of the king was painful to Joab.

Judgment for David's Sin

7And there was evil in the sight of the Lord respecting this thing; and he smote Israel. 8And David said to God, I have sinned exceedingly, in that I have done this thing: and now, I pray thee, remove the sin of thy servant; for I have been exceedingly foolish.

9And the Lord spoke to Gad the seer, saying, 10Go and speak to David, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I bring three things upon thee: choose one of them for thyself, and I will do it to thee. 11And Gad came to David, and said to him, Thus saith the Lord, Choose for thyself, 12either three years of famine, or that thou shouldest flee three months from the face of thine enemies, and the sword of thine enemies shall be employed to destroy thee, or that the sword of the Lord and pestilence should be three days in the land, and the angel of the Lord shall be destroying in all the inheritance of Israel. And now consider what I shall answer to him that sent the message. 13And David said to Gad, They are very hard for me, even all the three: let me fall now into the hands of the Lord, for his mercies are very abundant, and let me not fall by any means into the hands of man.

David's Repentance Spares Jerusalem

14So the Lord brought pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men. 15And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the Lord saw, and repented for the evil, and said to the angel that was destroying, Let it suffice thee; withhold thine hand. And the angel of the Lord stood by the threshing-floor of Orna the Jebusite. 16And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the Lord, standing between the earth and the heaven, and his sword drawn in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem: and David and the elders clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. 17And David said to God, Was it not I that gave orders to number the people? and I am the guilty one; I have greatly sinned: but these sheep, what have they done? O Lord God, let thy hand be upon me, and upon my father's house, and not on thy people for destruction, O Lord!

David Builds an Altar

18And the angel of the Lord told Gad to tell David, that he should go up to erect and altar to the Lord, in the threshing-floor of Orna the Jebusite. 19And David went up according to the word of Gad, which he spoke in the name of the Lord. 20And Orna turned and saw the king; and he hid himself and his four sons with him. Now Orna was threshing wheat. 21And David came to Orna; and Orna came forth from the threshing-floor, and did obeisance to David with his face to the ground. 22And David said to Orna, Give me thy place of the threshing-floor, and I will build upon it an altar to the Lord: give it me for its worth in money, and the plague shall cease from among the people. 23And Orna said to David, Take it to thyself, and let my lord the king do what is right in his eyes: see, I have given the calves for a whole-burnt-offering, and the plough for wood, and the corn for a meat-offering; I have given all. 24And king David said to Orna, Nay; for I will surely buy it for its worth in money: for I will not take thy property for the Lord, to offer a whole-burnt-offering to the Lord without cost to myself. 25And David gave to Orna for his place six hundred shekels of gold by weight. 26And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered up whole-burnt-offerings and peace-offerings: and he cried to the Lord, and he answered him by fire out of heaven on the altar of whole-burnt-offerings, and it consumed the whole-burnt-offering. 27And the Lord spoke to the angel; and he put up the sword into its sheath.

28At that time when David saw that the Lord answered him in the threshing-floor of Orna the Jebusite, he also sacrificed there. 29And the tabernacle of the Lord which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of whole-burnt-offerings, were at that time in the high place at Gabaon. 30And David could not go before it to enquire of God; for he hasted not because of the sword of the angel of the Lord.