David’s Military Census
(Exodus 30:11–16; 2 Samuel 24:1–9)

1And Satan† stood up against Israel and incited David to number Israel. 2And David said to Joab and to the heads of the people, “Go, number Israel from Beersheba and as far as Dan and bring it to me, that I may know their number.”

3And Joab answered, “May YHWH add to His people as they are a hundred times. Are they not, my lord O king, all of them for my lord as servants? Why does my lord require this? Why should he be a cause of guilt in Israel?”

4And the word of the king was strengthened against Joab, and Joab went out and went throughout all Israel, and he came to Jerusalem. 5And Joab gave the account of the number of the people to David. And all Israel had a thousand thousands and a hundred thousand men who drew the sword, and Judah had four hundred and seventy thousand men who drew the sword. 6And Levi and Benjamin he did not count among them, for the word of the king was abominable to Joab.

Judgment for David’s Sin
(2 Samuel 24:10–14)

7And it was evil in the eyes of God concerning this thing, and He struck Israel.

8And David said to God, “I have sinned greatly because I have done this thing. And take away, please, the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”

9And YHWH spoke to Gad, seer of David, saying, 10“Go and declare to David, saying, thus says YHWH: ‘Three things I offer to you; choose for yourself one of them, that I may do it to you.’”

11And Gad came to David and said to him, “Thus says YHWH: ‘Choose for yourself 12either three years of famine, or three months of being swept away† before the faces of your foes—and the sword of your enemies overtaking you, or three days of the sword of YHWH and the plague upon the land and the angel of YHWH destroying in all the territory of Israel.’ And consider what word I should take back to Him who sent me.”

13And David said to Gad, “There is great distress to me. Let me fall, please, into the hand of YHWH, for very great are His mercies; and into the hand of man do not let me fall.”

A Plague on Israel
(2 Samuel 24:15–17)

14And YHWH sent a plague upon Israel, and fell from Israel seventy thousand men.

15And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, and as he was destroying, YHWH saw and relented of the disaster, and He said to the angel who was destroying, “Enough now! Restrain your hand.”

And the angel of YHWH stood by the threshing floor of Ornan† the Jebusite.

16And David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of YHWH standing between the earth and between the heavens, and his sword being drawn in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. And David fell, and the elders, covered in sackcloth, on their faces. 17And David said to God, “Was it not I who said to number the people? And I† am he who has sinned and done great evil. And these sheep, what have they done? O YHWH my God, please, let Your hand be upon me and upon the house of my father, and not upon Your people, that they should be plagued.”

David Builds an Altar
(2 Samuel 24:18–25)

18And the angel of YHWH spoke to Gad, to say to David that David should go and erect an altar to YHWH on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19And David went up at the word of Gad, which he had spoken in the name of YHWH.

20And Ornan turned and saw the angel. And his four sons with him hid themselves, and Ornan was threshing wheat. 21And David came to Ornan, and Ornan looked and saw David, and he went out from the threshing floor and bowed before David with his face to the ground.

22And David said to Ornan, “Grant me the place of the threshing floor, that I may build on it an altar to YHWH. At the full price you shall grant it to me, that the plague may be withdrawn from the people.”

23And Ornan said to David, “Take it to yourself, and let my lord the king do good in his eyes. See, I give you the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing sledges for wood, and the wheat for the grain offering; all I have given.”

24And King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will surely buy it for the full price; for I will not take what is yours for YHWH, so as to offer a burnt offering without cost.”

25And David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight.† 26And David built there an altar to YHWH, and he offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and he called to YHWH. And He answered him by fire from the heavens on the altar of the burnt offering.

27And YHWH commanded the angel, and he returned his sword to its sheath.

28At that time David saw that YHWH had answered him on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, and he sacrificed there. 29For the tabernacle of YHWH, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering, were at that time at the high place in Gibeon. 30David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was afraid of the sword of the angel of YHWH.