2 Samuel 24:1–15

David’s Census of Israel and Judah

²⁴Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go, count the people of Israel and Judah.”^{* 2}So the king said to Joab and the commanders of the army^j who were with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beer-sheba, and take a census of the people, so that I may know how many there are.”^{* 3}But Joab said to the king, “May the Lord your God increase the number of the people a hundredfold while the eyes of my lord the king can still see it! But why does my lord the king want to do this?” ⁴But the king’s word prevailed against Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to take a census of the people of Israel. ⁵They crossed the Jordan and began from^k Aroer and from the city that is in the middle of the valley, toward Gad and on to Jazer.^{* 6}Then they came to Gilead and to Kadesh in the land of the Hittites,^l and they came to Dan, and from Dan^m they went around to Sidon^{* 7}and came to the fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites, and they went out to the Negeb of Judah at Beer-sheba.^{* 8}So when they had gone through all the land, they came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. ⁹Joab reported to the king the number of those who had been recorded: in Israel there were eight hundred thousand soldiers able to draw the sword, and those of Judah were five hundred thousand.^*

Judgment on David’s Sin

¹⁰But afterward, David was stricken to the heart because he had numbered the people. David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, I pray you, take away the guilt of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”^{* 11}When David rose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying,^{* 12}“Go and say to David: Thus says the Lord: Three things I offerⁿ you; choose one of them, and I will do it to you.”^{* 13}So Gad came to David and told him; he asked him, “Shall seven years of famine come to you on 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 decide what answer I shall return to the one who sent me.” ¹⁴Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress; let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great, but let me not fall into human hands.”^*

¹⁵So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel from that morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand of the people died, from Dan to Beer-sheba.^*