1 And Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel. 2 And David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it. 3 And Joab answered, The LORD make his people a hundred times as many more as they are; but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord’s slaves? Why then does my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of guiltiness unto Israel? 4 Nevertheless, the king’s word prevailed against Joab. Therefore, Joab departed and went throughout all Israel and came to Jerusalem. 5 And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And they found in all Israel eleven times one hundred thousand men that drew sword, and of Judah four hundred seventy thousand men that drew sword. 6 Among these the Levites and the sons of Benjamin were not counted, for the king’s word was abominable to Joab.
7 And God was also displeased with this word; therefore, he smote Israel. 8 And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly because I have done this thing; but now, I beseech thee, take away the iniquity of thy slave, for I have done very foolishly. 9 And the LORD spoke unto Gad, David’s seer, saying, 10 Go and tell David, saying, Thus hath the LORD said, I offer thee three things: choose one of them that I will do unto thee. 11 So Gad came to David and said unto him, Thus hath the LORD said, Choose thee, 12 either three years’ famine or three months to be destroyed before thy foes while the sword of thine enemies overtakes thee or else three days of the sword of the LORD, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me. 13 Then David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait; let me fall now into the hand of the LORD, for very great are his mercies, but do not let me fall into the hand of man.
14 So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel; and seventy thousand men of Israel fell. 15 And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it; and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented of that evil and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thy hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan, the Jebusite. 16 And David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the LORD stand between the heaven and the earth, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. 17 And David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? Even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be against me and against my father’s house, but not on thy people, that they should be plagued.
18 Then the angel of the LORD told Gad to tell David that David should go up and set up an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19 And David went up according to the word of Gad, which he had spoken unto him in the name of the LORD. 20 And Ornan turned back and saw the angel, and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat. 21 And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David and went out of the threshingfloor and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground. 22 Then David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of this threshingfloor, that I may build an altar therein unto the LORD; thou shalt grant it to me for the full price, that the plague may be stayed from the people. 23 And Ornan said unto David, Take it to thee, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes; I even give thee the oxen for burnt offerings and the threshing instruments for wood and the wheat for the present; I give it all. 24 And King David said to Ornan, No, but I will truly buy it for the full price, for I will not take that which is thine for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings without cost. 25 So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight. 26 And David built there an altar unto the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings and called upon the LORD, and he answered him from the heavens by fire upon the altar of burnt offering. 27 And when the LORD spoke to the angel, he put up his sword again into its sheath.
28 At that time when David saw that the LORD had answered him in the threshingfloor of Ornan, the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there. 29 For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering were at that season in the high place at Gibeon, 30 but David could not go before it to enquire of God, for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the LORD.