2 Samuel 24

¹ And again the anger of LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, Go, number Israel and Judah.

² And the king said to Joab the captain of the army, who was with him, Go now to and fro through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number ye the people, that I may know the sum of the people.

³ And Joab said to the king, Now LORD thy God add to the people, however many they may be, a hundredfold, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it, but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?

⁴ Notwithstanding, the king's word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the army. And Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king to number the people of Israel.

⁵ And they passed over the Jordan, and encamped in Aroer on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad, and to Jazer.

⁶ Then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtim-hodshi. And they came to Dan-jaan, and round about to Sidon,

⁷ and came to the stronghold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites. And they went out to the south of Judah, at Beersheba.

⁸ So when they had gone to and from through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.

⁹ And Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to the king. And there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.

¹⁰ And David's heart smote him after he had numbered the people. And David said to LORD, I have sinned greatly in that which I have done, but now, O LORD, put away, I beseech thee, the iniquity of thy servant, for I have done very foo

¹¹ And when David rose up in the morning, the word of LORD came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,

¹² Go and speak to David, Thus says LORD, I offer thee three things. Choose thee one of them, that I may do it to thee.

¹³ So Gad came to David, and told him, and said to him, Shall seven years of famine come to thee in thy land? Or will thou flee three months before thy foes while they pursue thee? Or shall there be three days' pestilence in thy land?

¹⁴ And David said to Gad, I am in a great strait. Let us fall now into the hand of LORD, for his mercies are great, and let me not fall into the hand of man.

¹⁵ So LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed. And there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men.

¹⁶ And when the [heavenly] agent stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, LORD relented of the evil, and said to the agent who destroyed the people, It is enough. Now stay thy hand. And the agent of LORD was by the thres

¹⁷ And David spoke to LORD when he saw the agent who smote the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done perversely, but these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father's ho

¹⁸ And Gad came that day to David, and said to him, Go up, rear an altar to LORD in the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

¹⁹ And David went up according to the saying of Gad, as LORD commanded.

²⁰ And Araunah looked forth, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. And Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground.

²¹ And Araunah said, Why has my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy the threshing-floor from thee, to build an altar to LORD that the plague may be halted from the people.

²² And Araunah said to David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Behold, the oxen for the burnt-offering, and the threshing instruments and the yokes of the oxen for the wood.

²³ All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king. And Araunah said to the king, LORD thy God accept thee.

²⁴ And the king said to Araunah, No, but I will truly buy it from thee at a price. Neither will I offer burnt-offerings to LORD my God which cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver

²⁵ And David built there an altar to LORD, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings. So LORD was entreated for the land, and the plague was halted from Israel.