I Chronicles Chapter 21

I Chronicles Chapter 21
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and
provoked David to number Israel. 2
Therefore David said to Joab, and to the
rulers of the people, Go, and number
Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan, and
bring it to me, that I may know the
number of them.
3 And Joab answered, The Lord
increase his people an hundred times so
many as they be, O my lord the king: are
they not all my lord's servants?
Wherefore doth my lord require this
thing? Why should he be a cause of
trespass to Israel?
4 Nevertheless the king's word
prevailed against Joab. And Joab
departed and went through all Israel, and
returned to Jerusalem.
5 And Joab gave the number and sum of
the people unto David: and all Israel
were eleven hundred thousand men that
drew sword: and Judah was four
hundred and seventy thousand men that
drew sword.
6 But the Levites and Benjamin counted
he not among them: for the king's word
was abominable to Joab.
7 And God was displeased with this
thing: therefore he smote Israel. 8 Then
David said unto God, I have sinned
greatly, because I have done this thing:
but now, I beseech thee, remove the
iniquity of thy servant: for I have done
very foolishly.
9 And the Lord spake unto Gad David's
seer, saying,
10 Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith
the Lord, I offer thee three things: choose
thee one of them, that I may do it unto
thee.
11 So Gad came to David, and said unto
him, Thus saith the Lord, Take to thee
12 Either three years famine, or three
months to be destroyed before thine
adversaries, and the sword of thine
enemies to take thee, or else the sword
of the Lord and pestilence in the land
three days, that the angel of the Lord may
destroy throughout all the coasts of
Israel: now therefore advise thee, what
word I shall bring again to him that sent
me.
13 And David said unto Gad, I am in a
wonderful strait. Let me now fall into the
hand of the Lord: for his mercies are
exceeding great, and let me not fall into
the hand of man.
14 So the Lord sent a pestilence in
Israel, and there fell of Israel seventy
thousand men.
15 And God sent the angel into
Jerusalem to destroy it. And as he was
destroying, the Lord beheld, and
repented of the evil and said to the angel
that destroyed, It is now enough, let thine
hand cease. Then the angel of the Lord
stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the
Jebusite.
16 And David lift up his eyes, and saw
the angel of the Lord stand between the
earth and the heaven with his sword
drawn in his hand, and stretched out
toward Jerusalem. Then David and the
elders of Israel, which were clothed in
sack, fell upon their faces.
17 And David said unto God, Is it not I
that commanded to number the people? It
is even I that have sinned and have
committed evil, but these sheep what
have they done? O Lord my God, I
beseech thee, let thine hand be on me
and on my father's house, and not on thy
people
for their destruction.
18 Then the angel of the Lord
commanded Gad to say to David, that
David should go up, and set up an altar
unto the Lord in the threshing floor of
Ornan the Jebusite.
19 So David went up according to the
saying of Gad, which he had spoken in
the name of the Lord.
20 And Ornan turned about, and saw the
angel, and his four sons, that were with
him, hid themselves, and Ornan threshed
wheat. 21 And 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. 22 And David said to Ornan,
Give me the place of thy threshing floor,
that I may build an altar therein unto the
Lord: give it me for sufficient money,
that the plague may be stayed from the
people.
23 Then Ornan said unto David, Take it
to thee, and let my lord the king do that
which seemeth him good: lo, I give thee
bullocks for burnt offerings, and
threshing instruments for wood, and
wheat for meat offering, I give it all. 24
And king David said to Ornan, Not so:
but I will buy it for sufficient money: for
I will not take that which is thine for the
Lord, nor offer burnt offerings without
cost.
25 So David gave to Ornan for that
place six hundred shekels of gold by
weight.
26 And David built there an altar unto
the Lord, and offered burnt offerings,
and peace offerings, and called upon the
Lord, and he answered him by fire from
heaven upon the altar of burnt offering.
27 And when the Lord had spoken to the
angel, he put up his sword again into his
sheath.
28 At that time when David saw that the
Lord had heard him in the threshing floor
of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed
there.
29 (But the tabernacle of the Lord which
Moses had made in the wilderness, and
the altar of burnt offering were at that
season in the high place at Gibeon. 30
And David could not go before it to ask
counsel at God: for he was afraid of the
sword of the angel of the Lord.)