1 ¶ Then Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.

2 And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from Dan to Beersheba; and bring the total to me, so that I may know it.

3 And Joab said, May the LORD make his people a hundred times as many as they are: but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? why then does my lord require this? why will he cause Israel to sin?

4 Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab. So Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and returned to Jerusalem.

5 And Joab gave the total of the number of the people to David. And in all Israel there were one million one hundred thousand men who drew the sword: and of Judah four hundred and seventy thousand men who drew the sword.

6 But he did not include Levi and Benjamin in the count: for the king’s word was abhorrent to Joab.

7 ¶ And God was displeased with this; therefore he smote Israel.

8 And David said to God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing: but now, I beseech you, take away the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.

9 And the LORD spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying,

10 Go and tell David, Thus says the LORD, I offer you three things: choose one of them, so that I may do it to you.

11 So Gad went to David, and said to him, Thus says the LORD, take which you will

12 Either three years’ famine; or three months of devastation before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three days of the sword of the LORD, and pestilence in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the territory of Israel. Now therefore decide what reply I should take back to him who sent me.

13 And David said to Gad, I am in great distress: let me fall into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are very great: but do not let me fall into the hand of man.

14 So the LORD sent a plague upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.

15 And God also sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was about to destroy it, the LORD saw, and he changed his mind about destroying it, and said, It is enough, to the destroying angel, stay your hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

16 And David looked up, and saw the angel of the LORD standing between the earth and the heavens, 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.

17 And David said to God, Is it not I who commanded the people to be numbered? it is I who 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.

18 ¶ Then 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.

19 And David went up at the word of Gad, which he spoke in the name of the LORD.

20 Now Ornan was threshing wheat, and he turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves.

21 And as David approached Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out from the threshing floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.

22 Then David said to Ornan, Grant me the site of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar to the LORD in it: give it to me at its full price: that the plague may be stayed from the people.

23 And Ornan said to David, Take it, and let my lord the king do what is good in his eyes: lo, I also give you the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the grain offering; I give it all.

24 And king David said to Ornan, No; but I will surely buy it for the full price: for I will not take what is yours for the LORD, or offer burnt offerings without cost.

25 So David gave Ornan six hundred shekels of gold for the place by weight.

26 And David built an altar there 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.

27 And the LORD commanded the angel; and he returned his sword to its sheath.

28 At that time when David saw that the LORD had answered him in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there.

29 For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon.

30 But David could not go before it to inquire of God: for he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the LORD.