1 Chronicles 21–24

David Takes a Census

21Satan wanted to bring trouble on the people of Israel, so he made David decide to take a census. ²David gave orders to Joab and the other officers, “Go through Israel, from one end of the country to the other, and count the people. I want to know how many there are.”

³Joab answered, “May the Lord make the people of Israel a hundred times more numerous than they are now! Your Majesty, they are all your servants. Why do you want to do this and make the whole nation guilty?” ⁴But the king made Joab obey the order. Joab went out, travelled through the whole country of Israel, and then returned to Jerusalem. ⁵He reported to King David the total number of men capable of military service: 1,100,000 in Israel, and 470,000 in Judah. ⁶Because Joab disapproved of the king’s command, he did not take any census of the tribes of Levi and Benjamin.

⁷God was displeased with what had been done, so he punished Israel. ⁸David said to God, “I have committed a terrible sin in doing this! Please forgive me. I have acted foolishly.”

⁹Then the Lord said to Gad, David’s prophet, ¹⁰“Go and tell David that I am giving him three choices. I will do whichever he chooses.”

¹¹Gad went to David, told him what the Lord had said, and asked, “Which is it to be? ¹²Three years of famine? Or three months of running away from the armies of your enemies? Or three days during which the Lord attacks you with his sword and sends an epidemic on your land, using his angel to bring death throughout Israel? What answer shall I give the Lord?”

¹³David replied to Gad, “I am in a desperate situation! But I don’t want to be punished by people. Let the Lord himself be the one to punish me, because he is merciful.”

¹⁴So the Lord sent an epidemic on the people of Israel, and 70,000 of them died. ¹⁵Then he sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem, but he changed his mind and said to the angel, “Stop! That’s enough!” The angel was standing by the threshing place of Araunah, a Jebusite.

¹⁶David saw the angel standing in mid air, holding his sword in his hand, ready to destroy Jerusalem. Then David and the leaders of the people—all of whom were wearing sackcloth—bowed low, with their faces touching the ground. ¹⁷David prayed, “O God, I am the one who did wrong. I am the one who ordered the census. What have these poor people done? Lord, my God, punish me and my family, and spare your people.”

¹⁸The angel of the Lord told Gad to command David to go and build an altar to the Lord at Araunah’s threshing place. ¹⁹David obeyed the Lord’s command and went, as Gad had told him to. ²⁰There at the threshing place Araunah and his four sons were threshing wheat, and when they saw the angel, the sons ran and hid. ²¹As soon as Araunah saw King David approaching, he left the threshing place and bowed low, with his face touching the ground. ²²David said to him, “Sell me your threshing place, so that I can build an altar to the Lord, to stop the epidemic. I’ll give you the full price.”

²³“Take it, Your Majesty,” Araunah said, “and do whatever you wish. Here are these oxen to burn as an offering on the altar, and here are the threshing boards to use as fuel, and wheat to give as an offering. I give it all to you.”

²⁴But the king answered, “No, I will pay you the full price. I will not give as an offering to the Lord something that belongs to you, something that costs me nothing.” ²⁵And he paid Araunah 600 gold coins for the threshing place. ²⁶He built an altar to the Lord there and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He prayed, and the Lord answered him by sending fire from heaven to burn the sacrifices on the altar.

²⁷The Lord told the angel to put his sword away, and the angel obeyed. ²⁸David saw by this that the Lord had answered his prayer, so he offered sacrifices on the altar at Araunah’s threshing place. ²⁹The Tent of the Lord’s presence which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar on which sacrifices were burnt were still at the place of worship at Gibeon at this time; ³⁰but David was not able to go there to worship God, because he was afraid of the sword of the Lord’s angel.

22So David said, “This is where the Temple of the Lord God will be. Here is the altar where the people of Israel are to offer burnt offerings.”

Preparations for Building the Temple

²King David gave orders for all the foreigners living in the land of Israel to assemble, and he put them to work. Some of them prepared stone blocks for building the Temple. ³He supplied a large amount of iron for making nails and clamps for the wooden gates, and so much bronze that no one could weigh it. ⁴He arranged for the people of Tyre and Sidon to bring him a large number of cedar logs. ⁵David thought, “The Temple that my son Solomon is to build must be splendid and world-famous. But he is young and inexperienced, so I must make preparations for it.” So David got large amounts of the materials ready before he died.

⁶He sent for his son Solomon and commanded him to build a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel. ^7*David said to him, “My son, I wanted to build a temple to honour the Lord my God. ^8*But the Lord told me that I had killed too many people and fought too many wars. And so, because of all the bloodshed I have caused, he would not let me build a temple for him. ^9*He did, however, make me a promise. He said, ‘You will have a son who will rule in peace, because I will give him peace from all his enemies. His name will be Solomon,^w because during his reign I will give Israel peace and security. ^10*He will build a temple for me. He will be my son, and I will be his father. His dynasty will rule Israel for ever.’ ”

¹¹David continued, “Now, my son, may the Lord your God be with you, and may he keep his promise to make you successful in building a temple for him. ¹²And may the Lord your God give you insight and wisdom so that you may govern Israel according to his Law. ^13*If you obey all the laws which the Lord gave to Moses for Israel, you will be successful. Be determined and confident, and don’t let anything make you afraid. ¹⁴As for the Temple, by my efforts I have accumulated more than 3,400 tonnes of gold and over 34,000 tonnes of silver to be used in building it. Besides that, there is an unlimited supply of bronze and iron. I also have wood and stone ready, but you must get more. ¹⁵You have many workmen. There are men to work in the stone quarries, and there are masons and carpenters, as well as a large number of craftsmen of every sort who can work ¹⁶with gold, silver, bronze, and iron. Now begin the work, and may the Lord be with you.”

¹⁷David commanded all the leaders of Israel to help Solomon. ¹⁸He said, “The Lord your God has been with you and given you peace on all sides. He let me conquer all the people who used to live in this land, and they are now subject to you and to the Lord. ¹⁹Now serve the Lord your God with all your heart and soul. Start building the Temple, so that you can place in it the Covenant Box of the Lord and all the other sacred objects used in worshipping him.”

The Work of the Levites

23^*When David was very old, he made his son Solomon king of Israel.

²King David brought together all the Israelite leaders and all the priests and Levites. ³He took a census of all the male Levites aged 30 or older. The total was 38,000. ⁴The king assigned 24,000 to administer the work of the Temple, 6,000 to keep records and decide disputes, ⁵4,000 to do guard duty, and 4,000 to praise the Lord, using the musical instruments provided by the king for this purpose.

⁶David divided the Levites into three groups, according to their clans: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

⁷Gershon had two sons: Ladan and Shimei. ⁸Ladan had three sons: Jehiel, Zetham, and Joel, ⁹who were the heads of the clans descended from Ladan. (Shimei had three sons: Shelomoth, Haziel, and Haran.)^{x 10–11}Shimei had four sons: Jahath, Zina, Jeush, and Beriah, in order of age. Jeush and Beriah did not have many descendants, so they were counted as one clan.

¹²Kohath had four sons: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. ^13*His eldest son, Amram, was the father of Aaron and Moses. (Aaron and his descendants were set apart to be in charge of the sacred objects for ever, to burn incense in the worship of the Lord, to serve him, and to bless the people in his name. ¹⁴But the sons of Moses, the man of God, were included among the Levites.) ¹⁵Moses had two sons, Gershom and Eliezer. ¹⁶The leader among Gershom’s sons was Shebuel. ¹⁷Eliezer had only one son, Rehabiah, but Rehabiah had many descendants.

¹⁸Kohath’s second son, Izhar, had a son, Shelomith, the head of the clan. ¹⁹Kohath’s third son, Hebron, had four sons: Jeriah, Amariah, Jahaziel, and Jekameam. ²⁰Kohath’s fourth son, Uzziel, had two sons, Micah and Isshiah.

²¹Merari had two sons, Mahli and Mushi. Mahli also had two sons, Eleazar and Kish, ²²but Eleazar died without having any sons, only daughters. His daughters married their cousins, the sons of Kish. ²³Merari’s second son, Mushi, had three sons: Mahli, Eder, and Jeremoth.

²⁴These were the descendants of Levi, by clans and families, every one of them registered by name. Each of his descendants, twenty years of age or older, had a share in the work of the Lord’s Temple.

²⁵David said, “The Lord God of Israel has given peace to his people, and he himself will live in Jerusalem for ever. ^26*So there is no longer any need for the Levites to carry the Tent of the Lord’s presence and all the equipment used in worship.” ²⁷On the basis of David’s final instructions all Levites were registered for service when they reached the age of twenty, ^28*and were assigned the following duties: to help the priests descended from Aaron with the temple worship, to take care of its courtyards and its rooms, and to keep undefiled everything that is sacred; ^29*to be responsible for the bread offered to God, the flour used in offerings, the wafers made without yeast, the baked offerings, and the flour mixed…