1 Chronicles 21

David Counts the Fighting Men

21:1–26pp—2Sa 24:1–25

21Satan^x rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census^y of Israel. ²So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go and count^z the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are.”

³But Joab replied, “May the Lord multiply his troops a hundred times over.^a My lord the king, are they not all my lord’s subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?”

⁴The king’s word, however, overruled Joab; so Joab left and went throughout Israel and then came back to Jerusalem. ⁵Joab reported the number of the fighting men to David: In all Israel^b there were one million one hundred thousand men who could handle a sword, including four hundred and seventy thousand in Judah.

⁶But Joab did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, because the king’s command was repulsive to him. ⁷This command was also evil in the sight of God; so he punished Israel.

⁸Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly by doing this. Now, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”

⁹The Lord said to Gad,^c David’s seer,^{d 10}“Go and tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’ ”

¹¹So Gad went to David and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Take your choice: ¹²three years of famine,^e three months of being swept away^a before your enemies, with their swords overtaking you, or three days of the sword^f of the Lord^g—days of plague in the land, with the angel of the Lord ravaging every part of Israel.’ Now then, decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”

¹³David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy^h is very great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”

¹⁴So the Lord sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead.^{i 15}And God sent an angel^j to destroy Jerusalem.^k But as the angel was doing so, the Lord saw it and relented^l concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was destroying^m the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then standing at the threshing floor of Araunah^b the Jebusite.

¹⁶David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand extended over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown.ⁿ

¹⁷David said to God, “Was it not I who ordered the fighting men to be counted? I, the shepherd,^c have sinned and done wrong. These are but sheep.^o What have they done? Lord my God, let your hand fall on me and my family,^p but do not let this plague remain on your people.”

David Builds an Altar

¹⁸Then the angel of the Lord ordered Gad to tell David to go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor^q of Araunah the Jebusite. ¹⁹So David went up in obedience to the word that Gad had spoken in the name of the Lord.

²⁰While Araunah was threshing wheat,^r he turned and saw the angel; his four sons who were with him hid themselves. ²¹Then David approached, and when Araunah looked and saw him, he left the threshing floor and bowed down before David with his face to the ground.

²²David said to him, “Let me have the site of your threshing floor so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped. Sell it to me at the full price.”

²³Araunah said to David, “Take it! Let my lord the king do whatever pleases him. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give all this.”

²⁴But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”

²⁵So David paid Araunah six hundred shekels^d of gold for the site. ²⁶David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on the Lord, and the Lord answered him with fire^s from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.

²⁷Then the Lord spoke to the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath. ²⁸At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there. ²⁹The tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time on the high place at Gibeon.^{t 30}But David could not go before it to inquire of God, because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord.