David Forces a Census

(2 Samuel 24:1-9)

1And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel. 2And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it. 3And Joab answered, The LORD make his people an hundred times so many more as they be: but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants? why then does my lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel? 4Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab. Why Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem. 5And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred three score and ten thousand men that drew sword. 6But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king's word was abominable to Joab.

Judgment for David's Sin

(2 Samuel 24:10-14)

7And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel. 8And David said to God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing: but now, I beseech you, do away the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.

9And the LORD spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying, 10Go and tell David, saying, Thus said the LORD, I offer you three things: choose you one of them, that I may do it to you. 11So Gad came to David, and said to him, Thus said the LORD, Choose you 12Either three years' famine; or three months to be destroyed before your foes, while that the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three days the sword of the LORD, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise yourself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me. 13And David said to Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man.

David's Repentance Spares Jerusalem

14So the LORD sent pestilence on Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men. 15And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now your hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 16And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces. 17And David said to God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done? let your hand, I pray you, O LORD my God, be on me, and on my father's house; but not on your people, that they should be plagued.

David Builds an Altar

(2 Samuel 24:18-25)

18Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and set up an altar to the LORD in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in the name of the LORD. 20And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat. 21And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshing floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground. 22Then David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar therein to the LORD: you shall grant it me for the full price: that the plague may be stayed from the people. 23And Ornan said to David, Take it to you, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes: see, I give you the oxen also for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meat offering; I give it all. 24And king David said to Ornan, No; but I will truly buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is your for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings without cost. 25So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight. 26And David built there an altar to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on the LORD; and he answered him from heaven by fire on the altar of burnt offering. 27And the LORD commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof.

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