2 Samuel 24

VIN(i) 1 Again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, "Go, number Israel and Judah." 2 King David said to Joab the commander of the army: "Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and count the people. That way I will know how many there are." 3 And Joab said to the king, And may the LORD your God add to the people however many they be, a hundred times as many, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king delight in this thing? 4 The king made Joab and his officers obey his order. They left his presence and went out to count the people of Israel. 5 And they crossed over the Jordan and camped in Aroer, on the right of the city, in the middle of the Valley of Gad, and to Jazer. 6 Then they went to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim Hodshi. They came to Dan Jaan and around to Sidon 7 They came to the fortress of Tyre. They went through every town of the Hivites and the Canaanites. Finally, they went to Beersheba in the Southern Desert of Judah. 8 So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. 9 Then Joab gave the number of the counting of the people to the king. Israel was eight hundred thousand valiant warriors wielding the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand. 10 And David's heart killed him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the LORD, I have sinned greatly in what I have done, but now, O LORD, I beseech you, put away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly. 11 Before David arose the next morning, the word of the LORD came to Gad, David's seer: 12 "Go tell David: 'This is what the LORD says: "I offer you three choices. Choose the one you want me to do to you."'" 13 So Gad went to David and asked him, "Shall seven years of famine come to your land, or three months of reversals while you flee from your enemies as they pursue you, or three days of pestilence in your land? Decide right now what I am to answer to the one who sent me." 14 And David said to Gad, I am in great distress. Let us fall now into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are great. And do not let me fall into the hand of man. 15 So the LORD sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning even to the appointed time; and seventy thousand men died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba. 16 As the angel was stretching out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the LORD was grieved because of the calamity, so he told the angel who was afflicting the people, "Enough! Stay your hand!" So the angel of the Lord remained near the threshing floor that belonged to Araunah the Jebusite. 17 When David saw the angel who had been attacking the people, he said to the LORD, "Look, I'm the one who has sinned! I did the evil. These are only sheep! What did they do? Please, let your hand fall on me and on my household!" 18 Gad came that day to David, and said to him, "Go up, build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite." 19 So David went up, as Gad had said and as the Lord had given orders. 20 And when Araunah looked and saw the king and his servants coming toward him, he went out: and bowed himself to the king flat on his face to the ground, 21 Araunah said, Why has my lord the king come to his servant? David said, To buy your threshing floor, to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people. 22 And Araunah said to David, Let my lord the king take and offer up that which is good in his sight: see, [here are] oxen for the burnt-offering, and the threshing-sledges and implements of the oxen for wood. 23 Araunah gave this to the king and said: "May the LORD your God accept you." 24 Then the king said to Araunah, "No, but I will certainly buy it from you for a price; I don't want to offer to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the cattle for fifty shekels of silver. 25 David built an altar for the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. So the LORD heard the prayers for the country. The plague on Israel stopped.