1 Chronicles 21:1-16 ▼

1 Then Satan stands up against Israel, and persuades David to number Israel,

2 and David says to Joab and to the heads of the people, “Go, number Israel from Beer-Sheba even to Dan, and bring [the account] to me, and I know their number.”

3 And Joab says, “YHWH adds to His people as they are one hundred times; are they not, my lord, O king, all of them for servants to my lord? Why does my lord seek this? Why is he for a cause of guilt to Israel?”

4 And the word of the king [is] severe against Joab, and Joab goes out, and goes up and down in all Israel, and comes to Jerusalem.

5 And Joab gives the account of the numbering of the people to David, and all Israel is one million and one hundred thousand, each drawing sword, and Judah [is] four hundred and seventy thousand, each drawing sword.

6 And he has not numbered Levi and Benjamin in their midst, for the word of the king was abominable with Joab.

7 And it is evil in the eyes of God concerning this thing, and He strikes Israel,

8 and David says to God, “I have sinned exceedingly in that I have done this thing; and now, please cause the iniquity of Your servant to pass away, for I have acted very foolishly.”

9 And YHWH speaks to Gad, seer of David, saying,

10 “Go, and you have spoken to David, saying, Thus said YHWH: I am extending three [choices] to you; choose one of these for yourself, and I do [it] to you.”

11 And Gad comes to David and says to him, “Thus said YHWH: Take for yourself—

12 either famine for three years, or three months to be consumed from the face of your adversaries (even [for] the sword of your enemies to overtake), or three days of the sword of YHWH (even pestilence in the land, and a messenger of YHWH destroying in all the border of Israel); and now, see; what word do I return to Him who is sending me?”

13 And David says to Gad, “I am greatly distressed, please let me fall into the hand of YHWH, for His mercies [are] very many, and do not let me fall into the hand of man.”

14 And YHWH gives a pestilence in Israel, and there falls from Israel seventy thousand men,

15 and God sends a messenger to Jerusalem to destroy it, and as he is destroying, YHWH has seen, and is comforted concerning the calamity, and says to the messenger who [is] destroying, “Enough now, cease your hand.” And the messenger of YHWH is standing by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite,

16 and David lifts up his eyes, and sees the messenger of YHWH standing between the earth and the heavens, and his sword [is] drawn in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem, and David falls, and the elderly, covered with sackcloth, on their faces.