²And David said to Joab, and to the rulers of the people: Go, and number Israel from Bersabee even to Dan, and bring me the number of them that I may know it.

³And Joab answered: The Lord make his people a hundred times more than they are: but, my lord the king, are they not all thy servants: why doth my lord seek this thing, which may be imputed as a sin to Israel?

⁴But the king’s word rather prevailed: and Joab departed, and went through all Israel: and returned to Jerusalem.

⁵And he gave David the number of them, whom he had surveyed: and all the number of Israel was found to be eleven hundred thousand men that drew the sword: and of Juda four hundred and seventy thousand fighting men.

⁶But Levi and Benjamin he did not number: for Joab unwillingly executed the king’s orders.

⁷And God was displeased with this thing that was commanded: and he struck Israel.

⁸And David said to God: I have sinned exceedingly in doing this: I beseech thee take away the iniquity of thy servant, for I have done foolishly.

⁹And the Lord spoke to Gad the seer of David, saying:

¹⁰Go, and speak to David, and tell him: Thus saith the Lord: I give thee the choice of three things: choose one which thou wilt, and I will do it to thee.

¹¹And when Gad was come to David, he said to him: Thus saith the Lord: choose which thou wilt:

¹²Either three years famine: or three months to flee from thy enemies, and not to be able to escape their sword: or three days to have the sword of the Lord, and pestilence in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying in all the coasts of Israel: now therefore see what I shall answer him who sent me.

¹³And David said to Gad: I am on every side in a great strait: but it is better for me to fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercies are many, than into the hands of men.

¹⁴So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel. And there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.

¹⁵And he sent an angel to Jerusalem, to strike it: and as he was striking it, the Lord beheld, and took pity for the greatness of the evil: and said to the angel that destroyed: It is enough, now stop thy hand. And the angel of the Lord stood by the thrashingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.

¹⁶And David lifting up his eyes, saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand, turned against Jerusalem: and both he and the ancients clothed in haircloth, fell down flat on the ground.

¹⁷And David said to God: Am not I he that commanded the people to be numbered? It is I that have sinned: it is I that have done the evil: but as for this flock, what hath it deserved? O Lord my God, let thy hand be turned, I beseech thee, upon me, and upon my father’s house: and let not thy people be destroyed.

¹⁸And the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to tell David, to go up, and build an altar to the Lord God in the thrashingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.

¹⁹And David went up, according to the word of Gad, which he spoke to him in the name of the Lord.

²⁰Now when Ornan looked up, and saw the angel, he and his four sons hid themselves: for at that time he was thrashing wheat in the floor.

²¹And as David was coming to Ornan, Ornan saw him, and went out of the thrashingfloor to meet him, and bowed down to him with his face to the ground.

²²And David said to him: Give me this place of thy thrashingfloor, that I may build therein an altar to the Lord: but thou shalt take of me as much money as it is worth, that the plague may cease from the people.

²³And Ornan said to David: Take it, and let my lord the king do all that pleaseth him: and moreover the oxen also I give for a holocaust, and the drays for wood, and the wheat for the sacrifice: I will give it all willingly.

²⁴And king David said to him: It shall not be so, but I will give thee money as much as it is worth: for I must not take it from thee, and so offer to the Lord holocausts free cost.

²⁵So David gave to Ornan for the place, six hundred sicles of gold of just weight.

²⁶And he built there an altar to the Lord: and he offered holocausts, and peace offerings, and he called upon the Lord, and he heard him by sending fire from heaven upon the altar of the holocaust.

²⁷And the Lord commanded the angel: and he put up his sword again into the sheath.

²⁸And David seeing that the Lord had heard him in the thrashingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite, forthwith offered victims there.

²⁹But the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses made in the desert, and the altar of holocausts, was at that time in the high place of Gabaon.

³⁰And David could not go to the altar there to pray to God: for he was seized with an exceeding great fear, seeing the sword of the angel of the Lord.

Chapter 22

Then David said: This is the house of God, And this is the altar for the holocaust of Israel.

²And he commanded to gather together all the proselytes of the land of Israel, and out of them he appointed stonecutters to hew stones and polish them, to build the house of God.

³And David prepared in abundance iron for the nails of the gates, and for the closures and joinings: and of brass an immense weight.

⁴And the cedar trees were without number, which the Sidonians, and Tyrians brought to David.

⁵And David said: Solomon my son is very young and tender, and the house which I would have to be built to the Lord, must be such as to be renowned in all countries: therefore I will prepare him necessaries. And therefore before his death he prepared all the charges.

⁶And he called for Solomon his son: and commanded him to build a house to the Lord the God of Israel.

⁷And David said to Solomon: My son, it was my desire to have built a house to the name of the Lord my God.

⁸But the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Thou hast shed much blood, and fought many battles, so thou cannot not build house to my name, after shedding so much blood before me:

⁹The son, that shall be born to thee, shall be a most quiet man: for I will make him rest from all his enemies round about: and therefore he shall be called Peaceable: and I will give peace and quietness to Israel all his days.

¹⁰He shall build a house to my name, and he shall be a son to me, and I will be a father to him: and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever.

¹¹Now then, my son, the Lord be with thee, and do thou prosper, and build the house to the Lord thy God, as he hath spoken of thee.

¹²The Lord also give thee wisdom and understanding, that thou mayest be able to rule Israel, and to keep the law of the Lord thy God.

¹³For then thou shalt be able to prosper, if thou keep the commandments, and judgments, which the Lord commanded Moses to teach Israel: take courage and act manfully, fear not, nor be dismayed.

¹⁴Behold I in my poverty have prepared the charges of the house of the Lord, of gold a hundred thousand talents, and of silver a million of talents: but of brass, and of iron there is no weight, for the abundance surpasseth all account: timber also and stones I have prepared for all the charges.

¹⁵Thou hast also workmen in abundance, hewers of stones, and masons, and carpenters, and of all trades the most skilful in their work,

¹⁶In gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in iron, whereof there is no number. Arise then, and be doing, and the Lord will be with thee.

¹⁷David also charged all the princes of Israel, to help Solomon his son,

¹⁸Saying: You see, that the Lord your God is with you, and hath given you rest round about, and hath delivered all your enemies into your hands, and the land is subdued before the Lord, and before his people.

¹⁹Give therefore your hearts and your souls, to seek the Lord your God and arise, and build a sanctuary to the Lord God, that the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and the vessels consecrated to the Lord, may be brought into the house, which is built to the name of the Lord.

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