The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Chronicles 21
1 Satan stood up against Israel, and
moved David to take a census of Israel.
2 David said to Joab and to the princes
of the people, “Go, count Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring me word,
that I may know how many there are.”
3 Joab said, “May Yahweh make his people a hundred times as many as they are.
But, my lord the king, aren’t they all my
lord’s servants? Why does my lord require
this thing? Why will he be a cause of guilt
to Israel?”
4 Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed
against Joab. Therefore Joab departed and
went throughout all Israel, then came to
Jerusalem.
5 Joab gave the sum of the census of the
people to David. All those of Israel were
one million one hundred thousand men
who drew a sword; and in Judah were four
hundred seventy thousand men who drew
a sword.
6 But he didn’t count Levi and Benjamin
among them, for the king’s word was
abominable to Joab.
7 God was displeased with this thing;
therefore he struck Israel.
8 David said to God, “I have sinned
greatly, in that I have done this thing. But
now put away, I beg you, the iniquity of
your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”
9 Yahweh spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying,
10 “Go and speak to David, saying, ‘Yahweh says, “I offer you three things. Choose
one of them, that I may do it to you.
11 So Gad came to David and said to him,
“Yahweh says, ‘Take your choice:
12 either three years of famine; or three
months to be consumed before your foes,
while the swordof your enemies overtakes
you; or else three days of the sword of
Yahweh, even pestilence in the land, and
Yahweh’s angel destroying throughout all
the borders of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him
who sent me.’ ”
13 David said to Gad, “I am indistress. Let
me fall, I pray, into Yahweh’s hand, for his
mercies are very great. Don’t let me fall
into man’s hand.”
14 So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel,
and seventy thousand men of Israel fell.
15 God sent an angel to Jerusalem to
destroy it. As he was about to destroy,
Yahweh saw, and he relented of the disaster, and said to the destroying angel, “It is
enough. Now withdraw your hand.” Yahweh’s angel was standing by the threshing
floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16 David lifted up his eyes, and saw Yahweh’s angel standing between earth and
the sky, having a drawn sword in his hand
stretched out over Jerusalem.
Then David and the elders, clothed in
sackcloth, fell on their faces.
17 David said to God, “Isn’t it I who commanded the people to be counted? It is
even I who have sinned and done very
wickedly; but these sheep, what have they
done? Please let your hand, O Yahweh my
God, be against me and against my father’s
house; but not against your people, that
they should be plagued.”
18 ThenYahweh’s angel commanded Gad
to tell David that David should go up and
raise an altar to Yahweh on the threshing
floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
19 David went up at the saying of Gad,
which he spoke in Yahweh’s name.
20 Ornan turned back and saw the angel;
and his four sons who were with him hid
themselves. Now Ornan was threshing
wheat.
21 As Davidcame to Ornan, Ornanlooked
and saw David, and went out ofthe threshing floor, and bowed himself to David with
his face to the ground.
22 Then David said to Ornan, “Sell me
the place of this threshing floor, that I may
build an altar to Yahweh on it. You shall
sell it to me for the full price, that the
plague may be stopped from afflicting the
people.”
23 Ornan said to David, “Take it for yourself, and let my lord the king do that
which is good in his eyes. Behold, I give the
oxenfor burnt offerings, and the threshing
instruments for wood, and the wheat for
the meal offering. I give it all.”
24 King David said to Ornan, “No, but I
will most certainly buy it for the full price.
For I will not take that which is yours for
Yahweh, nor offer a burnt offering that
costs me nothing.”
25 So David gave to Ornan six hundred
shekels† of gold by weight for the place.
26 David built an altar to Yahweh there,
and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on Yahweh; and he
answered him from the sky by fire on the
altar of burnt offering.
27 Then Yahweh commanded the angel,
and he put his sword back into its sheath.
28 At that time, when David saw that
Yahweh had answered him in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he
sacrificed there.
29 For Yahweh’s tabernacle, whichMoses
made in the wilderness, and the altar of
burnt offering, were at that time in the
high place at Gibeon.
30 But David couldn’t go before it to inquire of God, for he was afraid because of
the sword of Yahweh’s angel.