1 Chronicles 21:1-13 ▼

1 A satan rose up against Israel, and he incited David to take a census of Israel.

2 David therefore said to Joab and to the other generals of the army, “Go, number the Israelites from Beer-sheba to Dan, and report back to me that I may know their number.”

3 But Joab replied: “May the LORD increase his people a hundredfold! My lord king, are not all of them my lord’s subjects? Why does my lord seek to do this thing? Why should he bring guilt upon Israel?”

4 However, the king’s command prevailed over Joab, who departed and traversed all of Israel, and then returned to Jerusalem.

5 Joab reported the census figures to David: of men capable of wielding a sword, there were in all Israel one million one hundred thousand, and in Judah four hundred and seventy thousand.

6 Levi and Benjamin, however, he did not include in the census, for the king’s command was repugnant to Joab.

7 This command was evil in the sight of God, and he struck Israel.

8 Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly in doing this thing. Take away your servant’s guilt, for I have acted very foolishly.”

9 Then the LORD spoke to Gad, David’s seer, in these words:

10 Go, tell David: Thus says the LORD: I am laying out three options; choose one of them, and I will inflict it on you.

11 Accordingly, Gad went to David and said to him: “Thus says the LORD: Decide now—

12 will it be three years of famine; or three months of fleeing your enemies, with the sword of your foes ever at your back; or three days of the LORD’s own sword, a plague in the land, with the LORD’s destroying angel in every part of Israel? Now consider: What answer am I to give him who sent me?”

13 Then David said to Gad: “I am in serious trouble. But let me fall into the hand of the LORD, whose mercy is very great, rather than into hands of men.”