Chapter 24

The Census Taken

1 aNow bagain the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and it incited David against them to say, “cGo, 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, afrom Dan to Beersheba, and 1register the people, that I may know the number of the people.”

3 But Joab said to the king, “aNow may the Lord 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 1register the people of Israel.

5 They crossed the Jordan and camped in aAroer, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad and toward bJazer.

6 Then they came to Gilead and to 1the land of Tahtim-hodshi, and they came to Dan-jaan and around to aSidon,

7 and came to the afortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the bHivites and of the Canaanites, and they went out to the south of Judah, to cBeersheba.

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 athe number of the 1registration of the people to the king; and there were in Israel beight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.

10 Now aDavid’s heart 1troubled him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord, “bI have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, please 2take away the iniquity of Your servant, for cI have acted very foolishly.”

11 When David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to athe prophet Gad, David’s bseer, saying,

12 “Go and speak to David, ‘Thus the Lord 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 aseven 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 Lord afor His mercies are great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”

Pestilence Sent

15 So athe Lord 1sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand men of the people bfrom Dan to Beersheba died.

16 aWhen the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, bthe Lord 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 Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

17 Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking down the people, and said, “Behold, ait is I who have sinned, and it is I who have done wrong; but bthese sheep, what have they done? Please let Your hand be against me and against my father’s house.”

David Builds an Altar

18 So Gad came to David that day and said to him, “aGo up, erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of 1Araunah the Jebusite.”

19 David went up according to the word of Gad, just as the Lord 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 Lord, athat 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, athe 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 Lord your God aaccept you.”

24 However, the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for aI will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God 1which cost me nothing.” So bDavid bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

25 David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. aThus the Lord was moved by prayer for the land, and the plague was held back from Israel.

Chapter 11

Bathsheba, David’s Great Sin

1 aThen it happened 1bin the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and cbesieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem.

2 Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on athe roof of the king’s house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance.

3 So David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is this not aBathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of bUriah the Hittite?”

4 David sent messengers and took her, and when she came to him, ahe lay with her; band when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house.

5 The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, “aI am pregnant.”

6 Then David sent to Joab, saying, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent Uriah to David.

7 When Uriah came to him, aDavid asked concerning the welfare of Joab and 1the people and the state of the war.

8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and awash your feet.” And Uriah went out of the king’s house, and a present from the king 1was sent out after him.

9 But Uriah slept aat the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house.

10 Now when they told David, saying, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?”

11 Uriah said to David, “aThe ark and Israel and Judah are staying in 1temporary shelters, and my lord Joab and bthe servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? By your life and the life of your soul, I will not do this thing.”

12 Then David said to Uriah, “aStay here today also, and tomorrow I will let you go.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the 1next.

13 Now David called him, and he ate and drank before him, and he amade him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his bed bwith his lord’s servants, but he did not go down to his house.

14 Now in the morning David awrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.

15 aHe had written in the letter, saying, “1Place Uriah in the front line of the 2fiercest battle and withdraw from him, bso that he may be struck down and die.”

16 So it was as Joab kept watch on the city, that he put Uriah at the place where he knew there were valiant men.

17 The men of the city went out and fought against Joab, and some of the people among David’s servants fell; and aUriah the Hittite also died.

18 Then Joab sent and reported to David all the events of the war.

19 He charged the messenger, saying, “When you have finished telling all the events of the war to the king,

20 and if it happens that the king’s wrath rises and he says to you, ‘Why did you go so near to the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall?

21 ‘Who astruck down Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’—then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’ ”

22 So the messenger departed and came and reported to David all that Joab had sent him to tell.

23 The messenger said to David, “The men prevailed against us and came out against us in the field, but we 1pressed them as far as the entrance of the gate.

24 “Moreover, the archers shot at your servants from the wall; so some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.”

25 Then David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab, ‘Do not let this thing 1displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another; make your battle against the city stronger and overthrow it’; and so encourage him.”

26 Now when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, ashe mourned for her husband.

27 When the time of mourning was over, David sent and 1brought her to his house and ashe became his wife; then she bore him a son. But bthe thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord.

Chapter 12

Nathan Rebukes David

1 Then the Lord sent aNathan to David. And bhe came to him and 1said,

“There were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor.

2 “The rich man had a great many flocks and herds.

3 “But the poor man had nothing except aone little ewe lamb

Which he bought and nourished;

And it grew up together with him and his children.

It would eat of his 1bread and drink of his cup and lie in his bosom,

And was like a daughter to him.

4 “Now a traveler came to the rich man,

And he 1was unwilling to take from his own flock or his own herd,

To prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him;

Rather he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”

5 Then David’s anger burned greatly against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, surely the man who has done this 1a…